Communication Strategies
Storytelling & listening process
Storytelling is useful in conflict management and resolution processes in many ways. By telling stories, parties can define for themselves what a conflict is about, and what their real interests and concerns are. By telling stories, they can explore their inner feelings, their wishes and fears, by delving into conflict situations more deeply than is traditionally done. They can also make up stories about alternative approaches to problem solving or resolution. Thus story telling can act similarly to brainstorming, letting people explore different options and predict various outcomes.
Storytelling is also useful in dialogue processes, as it allows people to get to know each other better, and to understand why people on the other side in a conflict situation feel the way that do. By listening to the opponent's story, people will often say to themselves, "oh, I understand, that has happened to me too," or "yes, I can see how that would have made you feel the way it did." It makes people's beliefs and their abstract ideas have more reality, or validity, than they otherwise might have.
Although it is used to a lesser extent than in dialogue processes, story-telling can also be useful in mediation processes. When a mediator begins by asking the parties to explain the situation from their own point of view, they are actually asking them to "tell their story." Depending on how the mediator facilitates the storytelling, the process might be very similar to the dialogue process, or much more abbreviated. Either way, storytelling is used as a way of opening people up, both to talk and to listen and to pave the way for improved communication and understanding.
