Collective Story Harvest

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Comment by Amanda Fenton on March 6, 2014 at 12:06am

Hello friends and Collective Story Harvesters....

Reflecting this week about my journey with this process. I've mostly used it when groups split up into smaller story circles, each with a storyteller and wisdom catchers who are using the themes/arcs. On Friday I hosted it the other way - with one big circle... I found myself preferring the smaller circles, as it gives more time to one storyteller to share for about 20 minutes, and the depth of harvesting happens, then with some cross pollinating afterwards with either a Cafe or harvest conversation.

It sparked for me an appetite to hear from others who have been using this process. What have you be doing with it that is good to share into the centre? What have you tried? Worked/didn't work? What else have you been thinking about? 

Look forward to what comes forward! 

Comment by Amanda Fenton on October 19, 2013 at 10:54pm

Hello Collective Story Harvest group - I've added some Collective Story Harvest resources to the Core Art of Hosting Practices page:

• Collective Story Harvest To Go document and PDF - for those who aren't familiar with the Art of Hosting community but are interested in this process. Inspired by the World Cafe To Go document. Some language changed a bit from my travels with the process with non AoH groups.
• Storyteller Support document- to help the Storytellers prepare.
• Collective Story Harvest Host Guide - I share this with the hosts ahead of time and have it printed out for them during the session (and walk them through it at the in-person host briefing).
• Wisdom Catcher sheet example - for times when people need to harvest on 8.5 x 11 paper - I do up a sheet for each theme and print them on different colours (e.g. Pivotal moments all yellow, leadership all blue etc) which helps when they gather in their like groups. 

Comment by Amanda Fenton on April 15, 2013 at 1:29am

Noticing I hadn't cross-posted my Collective Story Harvest story from last year in this group (it was from a two-day management off-site). Voila...

Comment by Amanda Fenton on April 15, 2013 at 1:12am

Hi Katie - I love the metaphor of turning over the stones, and what a beautiful tool for the process. Let us know how it goes!

Comment by Katie Boone on April 12, 2013 at 1:42pm

Hello folks,

We're preparing for a 270 person gathering in Fargo, ND next week where Joe Bartmann, Brad Drezler and myself will be hosting a Collective Story Harvest process at the Lutheran Social Service Building Bridges conference. The Building Bridges Conference is held annually to provide information and support to communities to aid in the delivery of services to refugees and other immigrants. This years theme is "Creating Community"

In preparing for this, I was thinking about a metaphor that could be used in describing this process and my friend Ronda Redmond and I played around with describing the harvesters role as being someone who “turns over the stones” in the story being shared. Each harvester or “stone turner” is exploring the world underneath the story. Harvesters keep this question in mind when listening to the story: What is under the rock that you seek to find in the story?  I've created a harvest tool for the process and would love hear your thoughts and feedback on this... Harvesters%20Document%20-%20Final.docx

Comment by Mary Alice Arthur on April 12, 2013 at 9:55am

Thanks Ursula!  Glad to see this working to support the work!

Comment by Ursula Hillbrand on April 11, 2013 at 5:15pm

Here you find some harvest of our Collective Story Harvest process in the European Commission, more precisely in the Strategic Planning and Programming Community of Practice (SPP CoP):

harvest