Stories and Communication

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm Julie Tietz. And welcome to Conflict Resolution-- putting the pieces together. Today, we're going to talk about stories and how they relate to communication. So I'm going to start off by listing off some of the key terms for today's tutorial that I want you to keep your eye out for-- story, narrative, codes, and confirmation message.

So since we're talking about stories, a story is a form of verbal communication depicting real or imagined events. Storytelling is a really effective way to communicate because it's engaging. And it utilizes a lot of different communication codes. And communication codes are things like using hand gestures when we're talking or facial expressions and changing our tone of voice.

And so when we're telling a story, we naturally utilize these different communication codes. And people find when we use these different codes that our communication and our story is more engaging. And they want to listen to us because of that.

And going along with a story is a narrative, which is just another term for a story. And when we use a narrative, we are using a cast of characters. And these characters are faced with some sort of condition. These could be a bad condition. It could be a good condition, whatever the case may be. And they take whatever necessary action they need to address these conditions. And they get the result that they are looking for.

In narrative or storytelling, we also have many opportunities to send and receive confirmation messages. And a confirmation message is a message sent by receiver to sender indicating that a message has been received and indicating how the message has been interpreted.

So when we're storytelling, we have many opportunities to ask our receiver if they understand what we meant. And the receiver has many opportunities to send us messages that they understand what we mean as well. So there is asking for confirmation and also giving confirmation here.

So where might one use storytelling in life? Well, let's say you have a really complex issue or concept in school or at work. And relating it to a story will really break it down and help others understand it better. Or maybe you are trying to teach a life lesson to your child. And so you use a story that possibly involves you or somebody else you know to maybe warn them about dangerous situations and how it can impact them.

And we also can use storytelling in conflict resolution. It's a great place to use storytelling because we're having parties in conflict here. And when we are trying to communicate and doing it through a story, it's more engaging. And it can grasp the other party's attention to get them to possibly empathize with you more and to really understand you better and what your needs are.

So now that we've gone over our stories and communication tutorial, let's go over some of our key points. A story or a narrative is a really effective communication tool and should be used in appropriate situations. And it's effective because it allows for imagination and creativity. And this engages others to really kind of live within our story and to understand us.

Again, it's engaging. So we are getting people to listen to us more and to really understand us. And it provides opportunity for many confirmation messages. And a confirmation message is letting the sender know that we the receiver have obtained their message. And we understand what they mean. So I really hope that you've learned something today. And I can't wait to catch you again next time.