Narrative in Online Relationship Development

A co-operative inquiry investigating how narrative is beneficial in
building relationships in online groups


Sharing information vs. sharing our stories

Step 1. Click on this link and review the following profile B

Click on the link below and review the profile that will open in a new window. When you are finished, close that window and return to this one to answer the questions in step 2.

http://www.chrysalisinternational.com/principals.htm

Step 2. Answer these questions about the personal profile

Question 1. On a scale of 1-7, how close do you feel to this person after reading their personal profile?

Question 2. What aspects, if any, of the person's attitudes, values, personality traits or concerns can you see in this profile?

Question 3. What are the points of connection, if any, between this person and yourself?

Question 4. What aspects of this personal profile contribute to your level trust and safety with this person?



Question 5. Other comments

Step 3. Review the following introduction email B

Hi everyone,

One of the things I love about collaborating with a global team is that someone on the team always seems to "on" when I am, whether it's 4 AM or 9:30 PM my time!

Following Stephen's lead, I will introduce myself before checking out and watching the (baseball) World Series. Baseball is the only sport I follow, and I have absolute faith in miracles after our beloved and bedraggled Boston Red Sox won the World Series last year.

I'm originally from New Jersey and have lived in Massachusetts for 27 years. As the middle of seven children, I have been facilitating from a very early age. Professionally, I have been a facilitator for about 15 years or so, coming from a background in organizational communications and marketing.

For the last 11 years, I have had my own company, Chrysalis International Inc., running it from my home office here in Boxborough, which is a small semi-rural town about 35 northeast of Boston. My work is divided between meeting design and facilitation; facilitation skills training and coaching; cross-cultural communications; organizational communications strategy work; change management consulting; and creation of customized instructor-led training.

My facilitation work has gone from about 90% face-to-face three to four years ago to about 80% remote facilitation today. Making this move was not entirely my choice. Some of my global clients demanded it, so I moved with them, begrudgingly at first. Now I have become something of an expert in the area of remote collaboration, and thrive on the challenges.

In fact, I write frequently on the topic and give training and coaching in this area. (As an FYI, starting Nov. 2, I am running three public webinars related to virtual teams, including one on building trust. I will be using a web collaboration tool, FacilitatePro from Facilitate.com, along with audio links. These are my first "public" sessions, so I am pretty excited about this new delivery method, which is totally interactive and blessedly devoid of a single PPT file.)

What drew me to Stephen's research project was the notion that storytelling could somehow play a role in connecting remote teams. I find that one of the greatest challenges remote teams have is the need to build "social capital" from afar to build trust. Many people resist any kind of socialization, for they see "chatter" as distracting them from the task at hand. Others feel that they can't really collaborate well until and unless they know something
of other team members. So I am intrigued by the prospect of using storytelling as a kind of social glue for virtual teams. I'd like to find out how we can capitalize on the power of storytelling with diverse teams, especially those that span multiple cultures.

One of my goals for my business for the next few years is to be able to do even more of my work from home, which will entail more and more remote facilitation, training and coaching. One compelling reason (two, actually): My five-year-old twin girls who sure like having Mom working from somewhere in the house, vs. in California, Singapore, the U.K., or even Boston.

I look forward to meeting everyone else as they come online.
Step 4. Answer these questions about the email introduction

Question 1. On a scale of 1-7, how close do you feel to this person after reading their email introduction

Question 2. What aspects, if any, of the person's attitudes, values, personality traits or concerns can you see in this profile?

Question 3. What are the points of connection, if any, between this person and yourself?



Question 4. What aspects of this personal profile contribute to your level trust and safety with this person?



Question 5. Other comments

Step 5. Answer these comparative questions

Question 1. If someone was introducing themselves to your group, which of these two approaches would you prefer?

Question 2. Why do you choose that preference?



Question 3. What impact does having a photo in the profile have on your impression of this person?

Question 4. What other information would you like to know about this person?



Question 5. Other comments





Previous Profile : Next Profile

Back to the Home page : Back to the comparison test start page

Top