How telling stories can help you know people in a new way

"Write down your story on a postcard. You'll only have one minute to read it out afterwards."

At a storytelling workshop I was asked to write something about myself, and 15 others were asked to do the same. To tell a story about ourselves. It needed to have a kind of "turning point" in it - an event that changed things for us.

I liked the challenge of being concise as well as the challenge of sharing something personal and meaningful. What I struggled with was the story itself.

It wasn't that I couldn't think of a turning point - I've had many. It was choosing one! I've been alive quite a long time, I reflected.

As we went around the room and shared our short and hurriedly prepared stories, it struck me how rich and varied these people's lives were. I'd known some of these people for a while, and I still learned something unique and fascinating about them: their education, their experience, their travels, their outlook, their achievements, their moments of realisation or awakening, their values, their despair, their courage, their adaptability, their recovery, their humour...

And we didn't talk for long!

Is there a way you can gently and safely share more of what makes you you with your colleagues? What experiences or people have shaped you and how? What matters to you? What moves you? What personal mission are you on?

You might think you know the people you work with every day. And they probably think they know you. But there will be something unique and fascinating about you all that lies undiscovered by most people. 

Can you start to uncover that today in some small way?