The Art of Dialogue in Coaching by Reinhard Stelter

Author:Reinhard Stelter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Chapter 6

The narrative perspective

Transformation through sharing

Throughout history, people have told each other stories as a way to share important events, sorrows and joys. Narratives or stories have helped shape cultures, transform them, and pass traditions on to future generations. For the individual, narratives lay the foundation for creating and shaping oneself and for developing one’s identity and self-understanding. In our hypercomplex world, where grand narratives have lost their power of identification or legitimation, the power of narratives can take on new meaning. Personal experiences and reflections enable a person to become an active co-narrator in the dialogue, thus contributing and acting as a supportive partner to someone who wants to be able to handle his or her life situation and particular challenges in a new and more adaptive way.

In this chapter I examine the role of the narrative for the way we speak to each other. Narratives help make meaning for an individual, while for a community they help establish a collective understanding. We develop through dialogue – individually, in groups and in organizations. Narratives are bearers of inherent values. Through the narrative we can express things that are important to us. In the following, the narrative understanding rests on an epistemological theory, which combines the phenomenological-existential and social-constructionist epistemology into a new whole. As part of our dialogue practice, narratives and the narrative co-creative approach lays a foundation that integrates the basic themes presented in previous chapters – meaning and values – into a single whole.

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