The Storyverse

Storytelling is as innate to the human experience as is the ability to speak. As children we learn to tell stories from listening to our parents. Through them we get the power to explain the world with language. We grow up hearing stories and learning to turn our experiences into stories. Because storytelling is part of the human experience, everybody has a story, but not just one, many.

When the storyteller tells a story, he or she must consider that the audience listening is seeking ways to connect their personal stories to the story they are listening to. Connecting our stories to the story being told is how we find connection, make meaning (sensemaking), attribute meaning (sensegiving), and how we find ways to understand the world (wayfinding). As humans, we are a collection of multiple stories that reflect multiple experiences across time.

There are stories that reflect our experience as children, adolescents, young adults, and so on. There are stories that define us, stories that mark a season or frame a time in our life. Each individual human is a collection of stories, past and present. The same happens in our organizations; each individual in the organization represents a collection of stories at different levels, different segments, different areas and disciplines in the organization. Each individual has stories of failure, success, change, growth, etc. The key, in an organization, is to uncover and share those stories that will help others gain the insights they need to achieve their goals.

When you tell a story, know that your audience represents a storyverse: an infinite collection of individual, personal stories, some related, some not related, but all intertwined in the collective human experience. For example, if you are telling an organizational story about the development of a new process or method, everyone who has come in contact with that process will have a different experience, and a different story about that process.

Think of it this way, when you step out into world, you will be surrounded by as many stories as there are many people, with each one possessing a myriad of stories they could share. Like them, you are not one story, you are the sum of many stories. Imagine if you mapped out all the stories you carry with you! What would that look like? Now, imagine if you mapped the stories of all the people you know! What would that look like? That would look like the storyverse.