When the only Stories are Negative

In several unhealthy work situations I've had the opportunity to be lumped in with, I've noticed most stories are negative. In our required text, "The Leader's Guide to Storytelling," Denning describes this: "An organization in difficulty will also have a vast underground river of negative storytelling at odds with the official stories being put out by its management. These stories may be invisible to outsiders and even to the management itself." Furthermore the storytellers and listeners seem to take pleasure in these negative stories. In my previous post I talked about how a leader can tell the group's story. In this post I want to elaborate on how the individual can shift the story from negative to a more healthy perspective.

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My dives into internal leadership have led me to believe the person who seeks to redirect the negative flow of conversation must be healthy on the inside.  It will also take courage to speak positively in a negative situation. If you are not careful (and healthy on the inside) the negative talk can flow from the negative talk of the day--to you.

I am an inveterate joker and I've noticed as I've inserted more jokes into the conversation I've realized many of my co-workers appreciate my love of the absurd. I've also noticed how willing they are to participate in group storytelling when it includes jokes, even leading to the outrageous. Please note: no feelings are hurt during the telling of the jokes.

Don't get me wrong, we are still talking about negative things within the organization but instead of grinding ourselves deeper into an unhealthy pattern one person brings up the topic, behavior or person of contention and towards the end of the story another person flips it from negative to a funny (but untrue, often ridiculously untrue) new perspective. After the story takes hold each person in the group adds to the story until we all burst into laughter.

Denning advises us to use humor to brighten our story: "By referring to painful events in a humorous way, you demonstrate that you have mastered the experience, rather than that the experience has crushed you." We are using this advice to break up the painful experience in the moment and to date it's working fabulously!