“When you over-prescribe, you under-surprise.”

A principle that comes out of work where I tend to always see more possibilities and cant resist putting them into instructions before workshops, meaning that the participants will tend to worry about doing it right than giving themselves permission to dream, create, evoke,

When I anchor back to the core of storywise work, I remember not to go into too much goal-focus mode because if I ask people to tell me a story of an obstacle they overcame or their greatest success, then I get what I asked for- its the story I want. Is it the story they want?

If I ask, tell me a story that contains the burning issue for you, or the story that is dying to get a safe space to be told, or a story that you had never dreamed of sharing till now, ( under prescribed) you get surprise, from you as the coach and from the teller who gets even more interested in their own story. They often amaze themselves.

When you under- prescribe, you leave room for over-surprise.

This entry was posted in Narrative Mapping,. Bookmark the permalink.