[2] The Story Zone
The Story Zone describes a zone on The Journey Map of personal and communal spiritual journey. It is generally the first experience a person is aware of on the path of the Journey, unless a person is adept at spiritual journeying or movement dynamics, in which case they will perceive The Story Zone is proceeded by [1] Mercy Space. In The Story Zone, people share their aspiration and situation in conversation and experience and therefore grow in understanding of each other and expand a context1 of possibility. Understanding and possibility together build Belonging: the phase of growth of a movement journey where a person feels ownership and connection to others, to the mission, to the community, and, often, to something transcendent.
Purpose
The purpose of this area is the increase in Authenticity Space through the nurture of Creative Tension. Authenticity Space means people are authentically seen for who they are by themselves and others. Creative Tension means real and loving2 engagement in the tensions of life and/or work.3
Elements
Aspiration (α)
What I/we want
What I/we want to be
Aspiration is the Push of the Dialectic system of The Story Zone, the subjective element. Literally, aspiration means “to breath into” something, by metaphor to focus one’s soul and spirit on reaching something with spiritual or systemic implications. In story, a person’s aspiration is where they want to go, what they want, what they want to achieve, or who they want to become. This is synonymous with the Imperative (α) in [7] The Shape of Stories.
Situation (β)
What demands must be met
What stands in the way
Situation is the Pull of the Dialectic system of The Story Zone, the objective element. It represents the external factors — or those external factors internalized by the participants — that exert demands on the story of me/we. This is the component that represents the challenge against achieving the Aspiration and the requirements that must be met for it to be realized — which will also form the story so its product is truly real and good: authentic. This is synonymous with the Situation & Setting (β) in [7] The Shape of Stories.
Although Situation must be strongly understood and held in The Story Zone, it should be understood that at this point it is the subjective “story version” of the Beta that must be truly clarified and explored in the next zone: [3] Revelation Rhythm.
[The Past ([1], ⊙)]
[Why the tension exists]
This is all elements of what happened before, aligned to and focused by the hidden Prime, that feed into the story, Sourcing both the Aspiration and Situation. As part of the Prime, which is at least partially hidden in this system, the Past cannot be “viewed” directly in the Story Zone without being interpreted through Aspiration and Situation.
[The Future (Ω, [8])]
[Why the struggle is important]
The array of possibilities or opportunities aligned and focused by the hidden Prime that draw on the story, Driving the Aspiration and Situation towards synthesis. Again, as part of the Prime, The Future is at least partially hidden, and the parties in a story may be looking at numerous different futures that align in purpose but differ in scale and context. Like The Past, in the Story Zone, The Future cannot be “viewed” directly, and is instead interpreted by the Aspiration and Situation.
Dynamics
While the Aspiration and Situation seem opposed to each other, in a healthy system they are held in a kind of Balance called Creative Tension. The more they pull on each other without pulling away and disintegrating the system, the greater the “space” of possibility that is opened up between the past and the future (the “diamond” shape of the system).
When creating The Story Zone for personal and communal Spiritual Journey, participants see and hold aspiration and situation and its connection to the past and future: the four forces in their stories. This creates space for later meaning discovery (revelation) which may include: new understandings of identity and purpose, insight into solutions or objectives, and connections to Holonic understandings.
How to Help
The big objective is for people to feel seen and for them to begin to believe in the possibility of their participation. This requires a kind of artful listening and disciplined “environmental management” from those leading, facilitating, or helping along the journey.
These principles should govern helping in this zone:
- Listen and Connect to The Big. The most important way to help in this zone is to learn how to listen deeply and seek to fully understand peoples’ aspirations and situations. As the Alpha and the Beta, aspiration and inspiration are outside of the system of a person’s life. They are bigger than “just me”. Every aspiration is ultimately a desire for some kind of transcendence, a longing for the “world that ought to be” or the Kingdom of God. People’s situations are not isolated to them as well, but rather everyone is connected together by the systems and experiences we have in common. “Connecting to The Big” means recognizing the connection each person has to larger things by affirming how their desires and experiences connect to others and transcendent possibilities, especially by recognizing how their gifting and calling might elevate or serve others.
- Absolutely No Answers! When hearing people’s stories, avoid rushing in with answers to propel them towards their aspiration or rescue them from their situation. Doing so will curtail their participation and ownership. If they end up belonging, they may only connect as “consumers”. Instead, the culture at this point should be a community where everyone is listening, growing in solidarity, and looking together answers. The vibe should be, “we don’t know all the answers, but we know they’re out there.” In group contexts, advice-giving crosstalk or “fixing” should be limited (either by facilitation or design). The best way to do this is to turn advice givers back to telling their story: “I hear what your saying, but tell us the story of how you came to that.” Or, “that’s an interesting insight, but I’m curious what experience that is coming from.”
- Experiences As Hints. When it’s necessary to balance a person’s story (too aspirational or too stuck in situation), it’s best to do this with experiences, rather than critique. Experiences steer people’s stories by adding chapters. People own their stories as their most authoritative sphere in life. Critique on this level is almost always experienced as violating and violent and often limits later participation if not excluding it all together. But adding to someone’s story by adding experiences is felt as nurturing and has the added benefit of weaving lives together when the experience is shared. This principle relates strongly to “building soil” and “out-competing weeds” in the Soil Cultivation skill (below).
Skill Set
Mission Applications
Rapid Community Building
People in Western culture report it takes 1-3 or more years to truly feel part of a new workplace, neighborhood, community, or social circle. The exception would be in Recovery culture where people feel they belong in as little as 3 weeks (3-6 meetings). This exception is revealing: Recovery communities focus their time on hearing and connecting to each other’s deepest stories: not those curated as part of a “personal brand” to maintain status in a social network, but the authentic stories that touch on a person’s highest possibilities and most devastating failures.
The problem with community belonging in is at least threefold:
- The Meta-narrative, “official story,” or Organizational Agenda takes up soo much of the story space that people only get to tell their story or hear others on the margins of community.
- The consumer economy has so influenced social interactions, people are strongly incentivized to tell a “personal brand” or marketing story that preserves status (or the status quo) but doesn’t inspire real connection (which requires vulnerability). This relates to the issue of Publics Vs Communities.
- The “Carts Before Horses” problem means we tend to invite people to a finished product rather than a process that invites their participation. This leaves little real need for their story since the Big Story is already complete.
Communities that create an effective Story Zone in their space, time, and practice can greatly accelerate the pace and depth of belonging for new and existing members. They do this by truly seeing each member — their aspiration, situation, past, and future, and they hold these divergent forces in Creative Tension to create a sacred space of possibility and participation. Not only to the members feel known, they feel needed: since they can also easily see the aspirations and situations of others and can relate to the tension between these, they feel compelled to contribute to the “we” and they even welcome, as an affirmation of their identity and value, their part in meeting the demands placed on the community as it pursues its mission.
Eduction Management
Eduction is the process of helping people discover their latent potential by taking responsibility for their growth and action. Eduction managers use The Story Zone to create space for people to solve problems rather than have them solved for them (by authority). Because such management requires people to grow and not just perform, it is key to Capacity Building. A manager using this technique would still help subordinates with problem-solving, but not by providing solutions directly. Instead, the manager shows they see the aspiration and situation of the subordinate along with the pain of the past and the opportunity of the future. Then the manager holds the creative tension of that space until the subordinate has the revelation of how to tackle the problem. In this case the subordinate learns that they can solve the problem and they own whatever information and skill they acquired along the way. If the manager solves the problem, the subordinate learns to ask the manager to solve it next time and they do not own whatever process or information addresses the issue.
Conscious Parenting
Parenting experts such as Esther Wojcicki point out that the hover-and-help trend of helicopter parenting achieves exactly the opposite of what it intends. While helicopters want to give their kids ever advantage for their success, they rob them of the most important factor to achieve it: the belief that they can solve problems. Kids build confidence by solving problems for themselves, first small ones and then larger ones.
Using The Story Zone in parenting creates a safe space for children to solve problems. Just thrusting a child into a situation will not magically make them grow. If they don’t have proper support, they will often find themselves stuck in fight, flight, or freeze patterns of the lower brain with devastating results. But when a child has the support and security of parents who truly see and hold securely their story — aspiration, situation, past, and future — they have confidence to face challenges, try new approaches, and find effective solutions. They are not prevented from growth by parents to smother with ready-made solutions, and they are not left alone to struggle and fail without security.
Marketing
In the ATRALA Marketing Framework — a system for building meaningful, sustainable value relationships — the first zone of connection is “Awareness”. The customer must know what you are and what you offer. While most organizations get that they must communicate this to get business, it is often less clear how they can do this in a way that builds rather than prevents relationships. Think for a moment on how you perceive “hard sales tactics” of the stereotypical car salesman: it doesn’t tend towards forming a rich business relationship. One the other hand, marketing interactions where a client feels truly seen by the organization do lead to powerful and lasting relationships.
The Story Zone can be used to do this. If the marketer communicates in a way that shows the organization authentically understands the Aspiration and Situation of the customer, they create “space” for the possibility of new shared value for all parties. This can best be done by incorporating empathetic listening in the marketing process, sending reflective messaging (tuned by what is heard), and responsive development of processes and products. The best way of presenting an offering is creating a space where it is “discovered” by the client within the context of their own story.
If a person feels seen and you show them the solution, they’ll buy it.
But if by seeing someone you inspire them to find their own solution, they’ll own it.
Mythos
Krishna and Arjuna
Bhagavad Gita
Arjuna leads one army in a civil war of succession for the throne in ancient India. On the eve of the decisive battle he is caught between the tension of his warrior self and his love for his family.
The Hegelian Dialectic
Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1817)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel developed a system of thought where two opposites are identified and placed into dialog until the two are sublimated into a new synthesis more true and robust than either original.
Yin and Yang and Pangu
Xú Zhěng: Three Five Historic Records
One Chinese creation story explains how Pangu, the primordial giant, used Yin and Yang to create the earth and all its forces in the Cosmic Egg.
Meta
Systems Management Based On The Dialectic
The zone has the system shape of the [2] Dialectic and should be understood and managed accordingly.
This means that our thinking should be “Both-And” rather than “Either-Or” in this Zone, that our activities should strive for balance in creative tension rather than feeding one polarity, and that we should be monitoring the health of all systems involved through the lens of homeostasis. A good application of these principles would be the ethical principle of the second of [4] The Four Rules : namely “Respect the system, but don’t get entangled”. It’s easy when listening to or entering people’s stories to end up entangled in either their aspiration or their situation. However, doing so prevents the possibility of a synthesis of something new: a revelation.
Origin and Synonyms
The Story Zone is a direct derivative of the “Story Clarification” step in [7] Emergent Leadership. While consulting organizations in the Planning phase of large-scale participatory projects, UK practitioners discovered how critical it was to hear people’s stories in the organization in a way that held both what they wanted and the situation they faced in creative tension until they organization was ready to synthesize something truly revelatory.
Later it was discovered that most narratives use [2] Story Tension to create space for the story within the minds and emotions (=soul) of the audience, a step or zone in [7] The Shape of Stories.
on [7] The Spiritual Journey and the beginning zone of building participation in [7] Emergent Leadership.
Related Entries
References & Notes
- “Context” means, literally, “with/together-weaving”. This is a great picture of how people sharing life narratives is a weaving together of the fabric of their lives. Here we say they are expanding a context since the context is created by those who initiate [1] Mercy Space.
- Loving in this case is affinity-love (phileo φιλέω).
- People may approach their entrance into the spiritual journey as either an internal or external journey or both. For those focused inwardly, the journey is about their life. For those focused outwardly, the journey is about their work as in vocation or mission. For those focused on both, their journey will integrate the two — often revealed in felt-needs around work-life mix.