In collaboration with University of Edinburgh, we’ve published a new resource -  Let’s Talk About It- which shows you how to use stories to facilitate change.  It provides story-based resources exploring different media (e.g. audio, video, text based, personal narratives).

This publication is designed to be used within health and social care.  However, the methods and processes described are relevant to anyone who wants to know how to engage and motivate people through change. Lots of people find change quite difficult and probably feel that there’s already too much of it going on in their organisation.  So if any changes are to be made (e.g. to culture or working practices) then you need to enable staff to answer this question: why is this change important and what does it mean to me? Stories provides excellent material for stimulating debate and curiosity and creating a momentum for change.  This is what our work is all about.

Over the last three years we’ve been working with Centre for Research into Families and Relationships (based at University of Edinburgh) to apply storytelling techniques to improve care practice for older people in Scotland.  This project – Connect in Care -  used stories, told in lots of different ways to, to engage staff in discussions about care practice in order to support and sustain change.  We’ve now pulled these methods and processes together into a practical guide – “Let’s Talk About It” – which shows you how to use them.

The resources outlined encourage reflection on work and social cultures and on the way we think, behave and relate to one another.  As such they can be used in both health and social care contexts and with mixed groups of people including, in most cases, older people and their significant others.

However, they’re also relevant for those of you involved in change management who want ideas for how to engage and motivate people in your organsation.

This publication is available free, please contact us for more details.