"The stories we choose literally make our world."
Michael Margolis (Author of "Believe Me")

Storytelling is the oldest form of human communication. It is a way to inspire, share values and knowledge, a way to connect with others powerfully.

Positive Lives offers several programmes for you and your organisation to benefit from this simple yet powerful communication and development tool.

The Power of Stories Programme 2012-2013

Bespoke Workshops, keynote presentations, team building events, leadership skills development, community groups. Please contact us to discuss your requirements. Special rates for Social Enterprise & Public Sector organisations.

• WellBeing in the Workplace
• Team Building
• Recovery Stories
• Leader as Storyteller
• Improving Reflective Practice
• Coping with Change
• Engagement
• Vital Voices - cross-cultural learning through sharing stories
• Improving Communication Skills

Recovery Stories:
We gather and share recovery stories for many reasons. Recovery Stories inform and inspire people with experience of mental health issues whether they be service users, carers or service providers. The stories offer hints and techniques on recovery from people with lived experience. They help all of us understand more about what recovery means.. By sharing recovery stories we acknowledge that people in recovery are ‘experts in their own experience’, and affirm that people can and do recover. For service providers, a recovery story project can help organisations reflect on practice and work towards service improvement.

Benefits include:

• Better engagement with clients, service users and stakeholders
• Evidencing your work
• Empowering and supportive experience for service users
• Opportunity to reflect on practice
• Can underpin service improvements
• Helps educate the public and challenge stigma

Story for Personal Development:
The 'story' you tell about yourself or your business to others is determining your opportunities and success. As your coach, I can help you to create your new story; one that has more meaning and possibilities. Click here for more information on coaching.

Story for Business:
Story is a very powerful personal development tool in business. We get the chance to step outside of our business and reflect on what matters to us, what we contribute and share. Story can transform your business, improving your decision making and communication skills. Story encourages innovative thinking and is highly motivating as it focuses on success in your team and common-values.

Benefits include:

• Strengthening relationships and teamwork
• Inspiring people to change
• Fostering creativity and enhancing problem-solving
• Improving clear thinking and decision-making
• Generating more engagement and better buy-in
• Communicating new vision quickly
• Discovering and sharing organisational knowledge

Storytelling & Teams
StoryWorks is our team development programme. We use a blend of story telling and facilitated group discussion. Its aims are to develop engaged teamwork, innovative thinking, communication skills and confidence. Participants will develop skills to enable them to speak out and be heard and to share their vision in a powerful and assertive way.

This workshop prepares the ground for real and meaningful organisational culture change, by creating an emergent and safe space for creative ideas, reflective insights and knowledge sharing. Story Works offers a way to create memorable learning and confidence in the future. This workshop will also improve your team members’ ability to articulate its needs, fears and hopes.

Benefits to organisation:

• To help people crystallise their ideas of service change
• To stimulate open and positive discussion about delivering quality and value
• To encourage individuals to share their own concerns about change
• To support the articulation of a shared confident vision for the organisation
• To prepare for the next stage of consultation, service and culture change

"The first task, as I see it, is restorying the adult ... in order to restore the imagination to a primary place in consciousness in each of us ...”
James Hillman

World Café & Knowledge Sharing
We also offer World Café events to capture the stories that your staff, members, community are telling. Ask for an information sheet.

Lapidus
Lisa is a member of Lapidus, a UK charity which promotes the use of creative writing and reading for well-being and health.

Creative Writing Workshops: Creative writing workshops are ideal for away-days and group work.

• Writing the Self - Journalling for Self-Development and Self-Esteem
• Improving Communication Skills through Creative Writing
• Improving Reflective Skills

Fees
Your requirements are unique to you. We will do our best to respond to your needs, be flexible in our approach, and come up with a cost-effective solution for you.

Here are some examples to give you some idea of costings for your storytelling project:

An hour's presentation to your team or conference: £150
A half-day workshop: £350 (£250 for Voluntary Organisations, Social Enterprises)
A full-day workshop: £700 (£500 for Voluntary Organisations, Social Enterprises)

Longer projects that involve consultancy, research, archiving etc. are costed on the basis of £100 per hour.

Please call us to discuss what you need.