It’s Time To Think About Those Holiday Parties. And Here’s Why!
Have you ever had this happened to you? You spend days and months on a
project. Then, you spend hours and hours on making the final presentation for
this project. Once you’re finally done with preparing the presentation, however,
you are so exhausted that you almost forget that you still have to deliver the
presentation!
Holiday time has a similar dynamic. There are lots of parties to attend. But most
of us focus so much on party logistics, what to wear, how to get there, to go or
not to go, that we don’t think about what we’re going to say once we arrive.
That’s why I hear a lot of complaints, including from myself, about the mindless,
endless, meaningless party chatters that leave people feeling unfulfilled and
uninspired.
Two weeks ago I devoted an hour and a half at the University Club of Chicago
getting everyone ready for holiday storytelling. Two weeks ago? That’s barely
passed middle of October… How did anyone think about what to say at holiday
parties? If you think about, it is the best time to do so because even though the
year is almost over, most of us are not yet overwhelmed by any holiday
preparation.
With just the right tools and process, participants were able to reflect on their
2015 and extracted extraordinary story ideas from seemingly ordinary day to day
experiences. Here’s an example of how one of the stories began.
“Burritos. Breakfast burritos. Saturday morning breakfast burritos… Who knows
such a simple food item can be such a powerful motivator to get a mom of young
children through their dizzying array of weekend activities? Yes, Saturday
morning breakfast burritos has done just that for me!”
Here is another story example, “You know the movie Julia and Julia? It was
about an insurance claim agent, Julia, and her journey of cooking her way
through the cookbook The Joy of Cooking by the famed author and chef Julia
Child. Well, since I’ve made 2015 about travelling and cook, I tried to follow the
character Julia’s footstep and cooked my way through this famous cookbook. I
started my first recipe and saw a long list of ingredients- lamb, pork, beef
tenderloin and a few other meats. So I followed exactly. Or at least I thought I
did. Well, what I didn't realize was that I was only supposed to pick one meat.
Instead I made so much food that my guests all had to take home a whole dish of
leftovers each! Let's just say that was the only recipe I did in the entire book – so
far. My progress is a tiny slower than Julia in the movie. But hey, I’ve already
retired so my 2016 will involve making at least one more Julia Child’s recipe. But
this time, I’ll read the instruction more carefully!”
Following my Storytelling Process, each participant quickly came up with an
authentic story. Everyone had a chance to share his/her story with the entire
group. The longest one took barely two minutes, and yet the group felt like they
learned a lot about each other- and most of us had never met before. Imagine
this year going to a holiday party and listening to endless fun and engaging
stories. Sign me up!
Afterwards, someone was kind enough to share this feedback with me, “This was
an uncomfortable process and yet I feel comfortable being outside of my comfort
zone.” Indeed, with some coaching and our guided process, anyone can feel
comfortable with telling brief and brilliant stories even when she is outside of her
comfort zone.
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Photo credit by: Horia Varlan via creativecommons.org
