Teaching Leadership through Storytelling and Narrative - Interest Session

Thomas A. Murray – University of Arizona, Dani Barker – Davidson College

This session began with Thomas Murray sharing a story with the group.  Murray revealed to the audience that he was once selected to work as part of a grand jury as part of a 4 month responsibility. Murray suggested to the group that what was so powerful about the experience, was that it provided him with one of the strongest personal experience examples of Bruce Tuckman’s Theory of Group Development (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning). As Murray continued with the aid of a diagram of the room he had spent four months in, he shared with the audience each of the stages that the jury group had gone through.  There was the forming stage, and the introduction of what he later referred to as the “Sunflower Seed Lady”.  Next there was the norming stage, a pattern of bizarre repeated behaviour that took place with the selection of each individual’s seat each day.  As Murray moved through the story and stages, he even mentioned that someone in the group had gone to the effort of planning a closing BBQ event for the new group of acquaintances. This was not something that Murray wanted to attend – he never wanted to see these people again!

In discussing the research on narrative approaches, the presenters mentioned that the research suggested that it was not a highly valued practice.  “It’s because it’s not scientific, nor academic” (Murray, 2012). However, Murray continued to explain that storytelling was a great way to connect models and concepts to the real world.  “It connects formal knowledge with reality” (Murray, 2012). The presenters further outlined other benefits of storytelling, including its use as a way to enhance personal growth, help people understand the “whole vs smaller” components, and that it makes those in authority positions more relatable.  At this point, the presentation shifted to outlining the appropriate framework for developing stories as part of your leadership teachings.  Murray suggested that in order to do this effectively, you need to include a learning outcome, theme, impact statement (an attention “grabber”), as well as a story that provides a new way to look at content.  Stories further need to use appropriate and authentic humour, while working to maintain dramatic impact.  Finally, stories need to have closure – a method to bring it all back to your learning goals that you originally intended to achieve.