The Pacific concept of Talanoa

This week I learned about the Pacific concept of “talanoa”. This is storytelling that leads to consensus-building and decision-making. It is a collective or community intelligence process deeply rooted in the Pacific way of life.

With parallels to Australian Aboriginal yarning and Hawaiian talkstory, talanoa is a conversational mode of storying through which knowledge is developed, collected and transmitted. It is at home in Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and elsewhere.

When we story, we embody our social self and deepen our connections in a dialogical universe. We know we are in a safe space.

Talking about tok stori | DLProg.

The informal process starts with someone sharing a story, and then others in the group add to it. This continued storytelling helps build relationships, create empathy and understanding, and develop consensus. As the stories are shared, they also teach values, traditions, and customs.

Let’s explore how the concept and process of talanoa apply to leadership, learning and innovation.

Leadership

To lead effectively, you need to build relationships and develop consensus. You also need to be able to understand and empathise with those that you are leading. The process of talanoa can help leaders do just that.

It helps you build relationships, understand different viewpoints, and develop a shared understanding. This can then lead to effective decision-making and problem-solving.

Here are some helpful guiding questions and ideas:

• How often do we share stories?
• What do we need to stop doing to make space for storying?
• What artefacts do we share that represent the story of our community?
• What is your organisation’s story, and how do you use this to learn together?

Learning

Talanoa is a process for learning. It encourages collaboration and the sharing of knowledge. It also helps to build deeper listening, relationships and develop empathy.

It makes me think about narrative pedagogies and how story is a mechanism for learning. In the same way, we think of the facets of learning assessment (for, as and of), we can learn from stories differently.

We learn from stories; storying can be the learning process and the vehicle to reflect on our experience.

I am curious to apply talanoa and other storying mechanisms in my workshops.

Innovation

I have been supporting primary teachers as they navigate a practitioner inquiry that uses design thinking. Storying has emerged as a critical feature of their innovative work.

A couple of insights surfaced.

• Stay connected to the story of problem-solving — who needs our help the most? Why is this important?
• As you move through later phases of design, it is easy to lose touch with the origin story of the problem. What’s the problem’s origin story? What would be in the Season 1 recap?
• As we gather feedback on ideas, share the emerging story of feedback so far. This feedback narrative helps our audience be more precise in their feedback. What is the story of feedback so far?

A further reflection is how stories and storying might help people access new ideas. Make sure you have a story to tell about your innovation — this will be critical for marketing and scaling your work.

Your Talking Points

• How do we optimise for storytelling?
• How might we use stories to generate new ideas?
• What would be the impact of using talanoa in business and leadership contexts?
• How might we create learning environments that encourage the sharing of stories and the development of relationships?

🕳🐇 Down the Rabbit Hole

Complement this issue with some Atomic Essays:

​Make Meetings Simple ⟶
​How to create the ideal conditions for dialogue, creativity and feedback ⟶
​Use This Question At The Start of Your Next Meeting to Increase Empathy and Connection ⟶

And some longer articles:

​Dialogic Coaching ⟶
​The Difference between Dialogue and Discussion ⟶
​‘Let’s have a yarn’ — empower every voice in your group ⟶

Thanks for taking a moment to join me this week — drop me an email at tom@dialogiclearning.com to connect and say hi. Or you can connect with me on Twitter > @tombarrett.