Day #718 - Filters and Context

Storytelling and Story Listening

I write and publish work every day, and have done so for over fourteen years. Yet still I find I have almost no ability to understand how things will land. This is not a particular issue, as most of my writing is for myself - part of #WorkingOutLoud, part of my own ‘sense making’ - but it does surprise me nonetheless.

I don’t really worry about sharing incomplete work, but sometimes I do hesitate before hitting ‘publish’, in case I’ve said something really daft.

Periodically I’ll share something that I think is very weak, fractured, but which gets a great response, and it reminds me of the contextual nature of understanding. People see my work through their own lens, and sometimes find value in it that I did not put there.

I find it fascinating how people see different things in what is written: I’ve shared the new Planetary Philosophy work with around ten people now, and each has seen it through their own lens, including those who have told me confidently what they think I wrote - which does not always align to what I see in the work.

All this takes me right back to my original postgraduate research: story told is not story received. There are filters.

Use your sixty seconds today to consider this: how does your storytelling account for filters - both your own, and others?

Do you hold back, do you assume similarity, or don’t you consider it at all? The context of all our work is different. I don’t have a ‘job’ in a very traditional sense, so nobody can fire me if they don’t like what I say - although they can, of course, unsubscribe, or rewrite my reputation.

The Social Leader is a storytelling - and story listening leader. Understanding filters and context is part of this.