Read the Intro to Storybonding!

Introduction

As he waits for the plane to depart, John is sitting in the airplane, papers strewn about his small table, seat, and floor. It was a great conference and he learned a lot, but how to try and use any of the ideas when he already felt overwhelmed and overworked! When and how would he have time to even try and implement any of this stuff? He had already tried so many projects but his group doesn’t seem to be engaged or growing. People come and go and he just has a core group of people left who are pretty burnt out. He slumps lower in his seat.

A woman boards and finds her seat next to John. “Hi, my name is Susan.”

“Hi, I am John.”

“Whoa, what are you working on here?” Susan says, eyeing all of the papers and notes.

“I was just at a great conference with lots of great ideas, but I don’t even know where to start,” says John.

“I was at the same conference.” She replies. “Yes, if your community isn’t aligned, it is tough to know what might help.”

John cocks his head, “What do you mean?”

“Well, what is the story you are inviting your members into?” Susan asks.

“You know, we have a pretty good history as an organization and we pride ourselves on our accomplishments. Um, our mission is to do good things.” John fumbles through his reply.

“Ah.”

“But we have been shrinking over time and our core people are burning out just trying to keep things going. We keep trying new initiatives but that just adds more work and it doesn’t seem to be working.” John sighs.

“I totally understand and sympathize. I have been there. Have you ever heard of Storybonding?” Susan asks.

“No, but it sounds like another program that I just don’t have the capacity for. I am barely keeping afloat as it is.” John replies, defeat in his eyes.

Susan smiles, “Yes I felt the same way. I didn’t even feel like I had the effort to spend the 10 minutes reading the explanation of how to do it, but you know, I am glad I did.” “It shifted my thinking away from just trying random things to try and get my community engaged, to aligning our group around the idea of what is the story we are inviting our members into, and how in our program helping them to grow and transform.” Her eyes twinkle. “We actually cut out a lot of our activities and programs that were not helping our people grow, and that gave us more time to focus on what did. Having an inspiring, meaningful story, in which our members are the heroes, reinvigorated us!”

“Our members have been more engaged and our organization has been growing. As our members transform they have become our new leaders.”

John listened intently. “What is the story you invite your members into?” he inquired.

With confidence, Susan shared her Storybonding script.

John’s eyes lit up. “Gosh, I want to join your community!”

Susan laughed, “Exactly!”

The plane took off from the runway and into the air.

Susan reached into her bag and pulled out some papers. “Here you go. Take ten minutes to read this on our trip.”

John read through Part 1 of Storybonding and then sat and thought for a little while. What was the story they were inviting people into and what were they transforming their members into? He started to ask Susan questions and they had a lively conversation during the flight.

John left the plane a little lighter. He and Susan said their goodbyes. He had some ideas of how to pilot some of the programs from the conference and he was ready to start exploring how Storybonding would work for his group.

We live in an overwhelming age where people are bombarded with meaningless noise and distractions making it harder and harder for your groups to attract and retain members. And yet, people are lonely, craving meaning, purpose, and belonging.

Storybonding uses one of the most powerful tools we have as humans, the power of story to help you cut through the noise and clarify, align, and grow your meaningful community.

What will you need to do?

1. 1First you will need to create your Storybonding Script.

2. Next you will need to assess your organization using your script as a guide, and look for places for improvement.

3. Lastly you will need to design solutions for those areas that need improvement.

This is an ongoing process, and I will provide details for each step in the following sections.