Getting to Passion

Do you want to solicit stories that tie your users to their passion for your library’s services?
Is delving that deeply scary? I think it’s worth a try. The following is quite R&D and institutionally focussed but there’s room for invention here in the community area.
The Anecdote blog suggests that you ask open-ended questions that elicit stories using questions like these:
“Tell me about a time when . . . tell me about a moment when:
you or your project faced a dilemma in a project
you or your team experienced a significant turning point
you dealt with a real crisis on a project. What happened before, during and after it?
you felt really proud to be part of something
you took a real risk and it paid off or didn’t pay off
you were really inspired by what was going on around you
you encountered an obstacle and overcome it
you saw (one of your organisation’s values) really brought to life/being acted out
your partnerships were working really well
you saw positive changes happen as a result of your work”
This week in this posting, we were encouraged to use word with a high degree of emotion to elicit stories:
“angry
proud
torn
change
delight
success
conviction
strong stand”
Sometimes I feel myself avoiding these words when logically, at least to me, it seems that I’ll find some pretty powerful stories and insights if I stretch myself more and use the words.
I’m going to try.
Stephen