Context - Part 2: Getting the Stories of People, Families, and Communities

This is the second article in a three-part series called Context. To read Context - Part 1: Moving from Assumptions to Understanding, click here.

The best of storytellers can capture an audience. Whether as an investigative journalist, a comedian, or a historian, great storytelling draws you in as if you are in some way part of the story. Those who are best at this craft go beyond brain and facts into heart and feeling.

But there is a distinction between telling us a story and knowing what a story is telling us.In our community impact and development work, every person, family, and community we serve has a unique story. Each story can provide contextual understanding for what help means in that situation. This is especially important when help comes from a desire to improve lives, not just meet basic needs without end.

How do we get our neighbors' stories that go to the heart of their situation, touch the listener's heart, and guide how a shared response develops?

Getting a story is both obtaining it and seeing it from the neighbor's  perspective.
A storyteller often follows a single point of view to capture the listener's attention. There is a lot of information that doesn't get spoken about because it doesn't fit the desired perspective for the story. Have you ever watched a movie wishing some details were filled in? 

When you hear the story from a community impact heart and from the neighbor’s perspective, the aim is to connect with the person, pick up important details, and respond in ways that go beyond emotion. In fact, if our work is only emotionally driven, it may not lead where it needs to and may not be sustainable.  It becomes a conversation where context is increasingly unpacked, providing important information leading to strategic insight.

Strategy doesn’t remove emotion, but it must be intentionally thoughtful and contextually informed. Truly strategic is never uninformed or ill-informed. In order to have that strategic capacity, you must get the story. Think about statements like, “You don’t get it” and “You’re not hearing me.” Whenever I hear or use one of those statements, I know that the need to gain perspective is needed.

One more key principle to point out before we move into some approaches to getting the stories.

Getting a story is more likely when you want it.
Atmospheric conditions that demonstrate a desire to know context are essential. Think about it: if you are at a doctor’s appointment and asked a series of questions, you can tell whether the person sees you as just another appointment or truly cares about you as a person. This desire for story is also different than someone being inquisitive or feeling like an inquisition.

The distinction is between saying that I want to know a person’s story and going far enough to show that I do. Engaging in conversation with a desire to know more, rather than fill in blanks on a form, says I want to know you. A clear desire to hear someone’s story can open a person up to trust.

If you don’t trust me, why would you tell me your story?

Let’s be honest, getting the stories of our neighbors is work. When something is work, we weigh whether it is worth it and whether it is a necessary layer. If you don’t believe I truly desire to know you and your story, I’ll only get what I “need to know.”

So, if you want to get the stories of your neighbors, how is that accomplished?

Ideas for getting to know the stories of people, families, and communities.
What follows are just a few ideas among an abundance of possibilities. Use this listing as seed for conversations among your team and volunteers to create your own approaches to fit your context.

Contextualizing these ideas is important because you need to be sure your approach will actually lead to conversations that provide stories. If people are rarely on the streets of a community you desire to know more about, street conversations probably won’t work. Don’t let what won’t work shut you down. Find what will. That may necessitate persistence, so don’t quit trying.

What you'll find about all of these ideas is that they get you out of your office and away from the conference room table. Real conversations move you from talking about the community into conversations with the community. There is a vast difference between about and with!

• Street Conversations
  I love walking the streets of a neighborhood and getting to know the people. Sadly, street conversations have diminished significantly in the digital age, further exacerbated by the COVID years.
  
  For me, it goes something like this:

Me: Good morning! Beautiful day, isn’t it?

Neighbor: Good morning. Yes, it is!

Me: I’m Chuck Coward, and I have a heart for this community. May I ask you a question?

Neighbor: Sure.

Me: It’s kind of a big question, but if you were to wake up tomorrow and one or two things had changed about your community, what would you want that to be?

Neighbor: Wow, that is a big question. (Some answer quickly, others may take a minute, and even ask for the question again. Wait for the answer. Don’t talk or give suggestions.)

Once they answer…

Me: That is a big answer! By the way, what’s your name?

Neighbor: (Gives their name.)

Me: It’s nice to meet you, (fill in their name). I would love to hear more about that desire for your community if you have a few more minutes.

Neighbor: Sure, I’ve got a couple of minutes.

Me: Tell me more about your desire to wake up tomorrow and find that (fill in with the idea they shared).

After some interaction about their answer, I eventually ask:

If you were to play a role in that change happening, do you have an idea of what that would be?

After they answer, I ask:

Would it be okay if I follow up with you about this conversation?

I think you get the idea, so I’ll stop there.

If you are having these conversations in your own neighborhood, that changes the dynamics of the interaction. It’s not just a neighborhood, but your neighborhood, which leads to a different level of connection with the neighbor. It also creates more room for easier follow-up and partnership in what you might create because it’s home for you.

• Surveys Over Time
  Whereas surveys can feel a bit impersonal, they are a way to get more detailed and controlled information and start conversations. These surveys can be as neighbors come to where you serve them, or you can go to the streets, like above. The distinction here is “over time.”
  
  When you repeat the same survey with the same people over time, you find patterns. These patterns can be arrows that guide you in problem defining and solution designing. More often than not, the patterns you discern will lead to more questions, so you have to be careful not to make these conversations feel like interrogations.
  
  Survey questions can be open or closed. Open questions lead to more information and more personalized answers. Consider my questions in the Street Conversations section above. The questions asking for permission and about time are closed and lead to a yes-or-no answer. Closed questions can also be multiple choice, where you define the options they must choose. An “Other” option opens the door a little if it provides a blank to fill in.
  
  The open questions above asked for their opinions, hopes, and preferred type of engagement. Both kinds of questions have value, but open questions open up opportunities to learn much more about a person, a community, and their story.
  
  Answers can be captured electronically or on paper, but what matters is how you work with what you collect. Capturing responses electronically will make it easier to sort through an abundance of content. You can use online tools such as SurveyMonkey and Google Forms to have answers go immediately into a spreadsheet.
  
  BUT…
  
  Don’t let it be about data collection. Sometimes pursuing and keeping funding leads to data-driven approaches.
  
  Ask yourself, “What story does that data tell us?” More importantly, “What are the stories of the people telling us?”
  
  A survey conversation starts a relationship. Cultivate that.
  
  
• Community Conversation Gatherings
  This approach is one of my favorites, but it necessitates a good facilitator. Community conversation creates a place for the surfacing and converging of people, stories, data, experiences, perspectives, capacities, and resources.
  
  Bring the community or neighborhood together for homemade cookies or ice cream and conversation. Some people have a gift for getting people in the room, so identify and invite them to join you. It’s okay if it starts small, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay small. The more people see that you are committed to these conversations being successful and productive, the more they will come to the table.
  
  Simple ground rules for this first conversation:
  1. Everyone who wants to gets a chance to share for no more than 2 minutes.
  2. Every idea is to be noted.
  3. No idea is to be commented on at this stage.
  4. The Facilitator alone guides the room and the conversation.
  
  Have someone who writes well take notes. If it’s possible, use a large flip pad, giant sticky note pad, whiteboard, or a computer and projector. People being able to see the notes as they develop will stir ideas.
  
  Have someone attentive to keep time. You can also use large time cards for a countdown to show at 1 minute, 30 seconds, 10 seconds, and Your Time is Up.
  
  Begin with a question like the one I suggested above for Street Conversations:
  “If you were to wake up tomorrow and one or two things had changed about your community, what would you want that to be?”
  
  After everyone who has thoughts for the first question has spoken once, and if time allows, you could ask another question such as:
  “Is there anything that’s missing from our list here that should be on our radar?”
  
  Planning is not the purpose of this first gathering. That is for future conversations and will be unpacked some in Part 3 of this article series about Context.
  
  
• Asset Mapping
  A plethora of tools and guidance exists for this kind of work and can be found through an online search for “asset mapping.” What you gather with this approach is knowledge of the human, physical, social, and economic assets a community has. But like surveys, don’t relegate asset mapping to data.
  
  Here’s something resources for asset mapping won’t always highlight…
  
  Asset mapping is most powerful when the effort doesn’t simply create a list or database of what a community has but cultivates an understanding of who a community is. The greatest asset found in mapping is from the process itself. This mapping leads you to connect with people in relationship and communication pathways, thus cultivating new assets that didn’t exist before the mapping work.
  
  
• Shared Case Management
  Case management for a single organization gathers information in a sense that is one-dimensional. It represents what that one organization is doing to help. But when needs are high, and help comes from more than one resource stream, that single organization’s case management tells its service story, but not a very complete story of those they are helping when others are part of it .
  
  When case management is shared, the story received over time for individuals, families, and communities becomes deeper, broader, and more detailed. A tool like CharityTracker is more than data collection and report production. This online tool provides a place to hold elements of a life journey, provided by a variety of providers and responders over time that, when pieced together, tell the multi-layered, multi-faceted story. This detailed story then helps clarify what real help is in that context, how it can happen, and who can partner on the journey.

Every idea that you find in this article is a gateway or a trailhead into a land of stories that teach us about the people who dwell there. These are the neighbors we serve and who serve with us, for our communities to become stronger and healthier. The best community impact comes from receiving and respecting these stories by listening to them and learning from them, and then creating from them and with them.

One more encouragement…

Cultivate your conversation skills. Learning how to talk with people, not at them, is a superpower. For more about conversations, consider reading or listening to my article Art of Conversation.

Now that you have the context, what do you do with it? In Part 3, I will unpack how to move from getting stories to creating solutions. Until then, enjoy getting to know your neighbors and community more deeply!

Do you desire to strengthen your CharityTracker or OasisInsight network and achieve new levels of collaboration and impact? Reach out to Chuck today to schedule your conversation: chuck@simonsolutions.com.

Dr. Chuck Coward serves as Community Impact Strategist for Simon Solutions, Inc. Chuck has invested nearly forty years in fostering human and community development from a variety of places and roles, including as a pastor, non-profit Executive Director, Director of Development, businessman, consultant, university professor, The Struggle Coach, and the founder of Entrusted Foundation. He is passionate about helping people and communities grow stronger and healthier, and to live their best lives. Chuck is the proud husband of Anita, dad to four, and granddaddy to nine.