Storytelling Innovation
Joe
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I wanted to start a thread about using storytelling as a communication form.
It's a form I'm not very good at I'll admit. I tend to lose my audience too quickly by not being clear and concise in a simple manner.
Because I'm not very good at it, I have worked at creating tools that can help collaborations co-create stories more effectively, efficiently and especially harmoniously.
Have you ever noticed how stories in our minds are so much clearer than they are once you first share it with another person. Then that simple story gets much more complicated. Ask that person to help make the story better and then even more problems emerge. Ask a group to work together on co-creating the story and all hell breaks loose. Quickly disagreement takes over the initial agreement and excitement.
Adding more minds to the co-creation process and the obstacles start growing exponentially with each additional add. This is why group work tends to be most effective in small number groups. It's why committees get formed and why big project work is separated into segments. The negative is that big disconnects quickly emerge between groups and the project as a whole.
Muxive helps everyone better understand who they are as groupps, but it does not directly help make group decisions in of itself. Group decision making is very problematic because it requires so much discussion. Usually someone hogs the floor time and ill feelings quickly result.
So how can a story (project) with details be co-created where everyone has equal opportunity to impact the direction and those very critically important details the end product will have? How can a story co-creation tool keep everyone happy but still move work toward its required end point?
This is an issue I've also spent a lot of time developing solutions for. I have a proposed solution tool. I do not have a great name for it right now though. My working title is "atreement stories." It's a combination of "agreement" and "tree." The tool creates a tree branch structuring set of possibility paths for finding agreement.
It's again a tool with a very simple frontend UI/UX and a quite complex set of processes and rules. (I will not get into details at this time.)
I just want you to be aware the project exists and that it is designed to allow each participant to be happy in adding to the story while learning what story ideas are most popular with the story followers and co-creators.
Happy to reveal more. Just ask questions if you are interested.
Joe Fri 28 Oct 2016 7:34PM
Hi Joel. Thanks for your interest in learning more.
It works different than your example. More like a movie DVD that has a few alternative endings.
Think of a typical story as a linear string of content segments. Normally a single creator decides exactly the specific content design/flow/detail of each segment as well as all the segment ordering.
With the atreement stories (ats) co-creation solution every segment is a node that can have only two paths from each. One path option is agreement. The other is disagreement.
So any particulat ats project can have any number of explorers/co-creators who are expected to both read/explore existing content nodes and introduce new content nodes anyplace they feel the story should be extended or an alternative needs to be considered.
Everyone in effect creates a path through all existing nodes. If you take an agreement path from any node you are saying you accept that particular node. If you take the disagreement path you are saying I don't accept that node and want to see something else in its position.
The goal is to find people who agree and are then able to co-create together in more agreement of nodes - amass a large number of co-creators in your group on the same path forward. To stay with a group you must compromise along the way. But if they stray too far from what you believe is best then you can venture off and hope to pull others along with you in time.
This solution introduces everyone to different ways of thinking and new possibility all the while keeping every single participant happy where they presently stand within the story being co-created.
Anyone can move to any node at any time to explore, but you must drop "markers" to tell the tool where you presently stand. This is very important to the analytics of the tool.
The ats tool tracks everyone and reports important facts of each story, like where are the most participants in agreement now. Or where has the story found the most agreement thus far. Lots of other cool/helpful explore tools too.
You can imagine in the beginning there being a long helical spiral of disagreement path nodes as most everyone probably has a different idea of how the story should start. But eventually someone will put forth a great starting place node that will find agreement with others. That small group will move from that node forward. Others will keep trying new options.
ats works for both outlining and detailed content, but every co-creation story should probably start with the concept outlining phase of development - meaning don't worry about the exact words/pictures, instead get the story flow right first. Once the outline nodes are agreed to then the team can go back and co-create the exact detail - if this is the goal.
Everything in life is a story of sorts - both entertainment stuff as well as products, services, innovations, processes, etc. ats can really help any type of team find agreement with any story with any objective or mission.
We all know that co-creation produces way better results than lone creation. But collaboration is so damn messy and problematic. ats tries to keep everyone happy while trudging through the murky waters together looking for the best of the best.
John Rhoads Mon 31 Oct 2016 9:48PM
I think I got most of that. You have really good ideas but it is a little hard to follow. I still am seeing flow chart methodologies and informal/formal Logic in your concepts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowchart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_diagram
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_flow_diagram
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic
Have you thought of starting a Wiki or expanding your website? Did you create all your ideas on your own or have you collaborated with others on them? Do you have a Lab space setup where other people can participate in your ideas collaboratively apart from our d@W loomio group? I like your website http://newhopeproductsco.com/index.php but it seems to not include your terms/descriptions as you put forth here in our loomio group or your "white paper" which I tried to find the link to in your threads but because there are so many of them I gave up. Can you post it here in a reply? I read your white paper also but could not fully follow the train of thought beyond it being a world view philosophy with some logic thrown in. This may be a limitation on my part. I think you have great ideas but feel they could be more developed. This is why I make the suggestions. For all I know your system could be what the world needs but needs more work IMO.
Joe Tue 1 Nov 2016 1:06PM
Not sure if this is the white paper you are referencing:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C7mVIpGaPoxTU_u4jvgJ-hWhImPXih8LXDWLZiSxsFA/edit?usp=sharing
You are absolutely correct in concluding that my communication of my innovations often fall short of hitting the mark. I've always said I need a great editor collaborator (co-creator.) Part of the issue in the world is most everyone has somewhat limited skills and talents. It's imperative we collaborate and co-create to produce the best possible tools for the world.
I currently have a few collaboration groups going. Some fully active and some semi-active because real life often gets in the way. I'm ALWAYS looking to grow teams and start new collaborations further developing concepts.
Yes, I have all kinds of virtual work spaces out in cyberspace: Google wiki sites, Google Drive folders, FB groups, Trello projects, websites, WordPress blogs, etc.
Happy to answer any further questions or point you to other communication attempts.
Joel Gingery · Fri 28 Oct 2016 3:32PM
Hi, I'm aware of the importance of stories or narratives in communication and would like to hear more about this process. Is it like "I'm going to France and I'm going to take...?"