Little Book of Circle Processes by Kay Pranis

Author:Kay Pranis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Good Books
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The importance of storytelling

Story-telling delivers information in a way that opens the listener. When information is asserted or presented cognitively, we immediately engage a screening device to determine whether we agree or disagree. We are primarily engaged mentally and begin thinking about how we will respond.

Storytelling employs a different kind of listening. The body relaxes, settles back, is more open and less anxious. We take in the story before screening the content. We are engaged emotionally as well as mentally. This different kind of listening allows information to be exchanged more thoroughly, leading to much greater understanding between people.

Circles are a storytelling process. They use the history and experience of everyone in the Circle to understand the situation and to look for a good way forward—not through lecturing or giving advice or telling others what to do, but through sharing stories of struggle, pain, joy, despair, and triumph. Personal narratives are the source of insight and wisdom in Circles.

By sharing our individual stories we open places for others to connect to us, to find common ground with us, and to know us more completely. In a respectful speaker/listener relationship, both individuals open themselves to a deeper connection to the other. When people share stories of pain or mistakes and drop layers of protection, revealing themselves as struggling, vulnerable human beings, we feel more connected to them. It becomes much harder to hold someone as the distant “other” and not feel connected to that person through our common humanity. It becomes more difficult to hold anger or fear or disinterest toward someone who shares pain and vulnerability. Unless we are already familiar with the life history of the speaker, sharing stories of pain and vulnerability usually shatters some assumption we have made about the person telling the story.

Storytelling strengthens a sense of connectedness, fosters self-reflection, and empowers participants.

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