“A humanity reawakened by Christ can generate new protagonists in the history of the world – new witnesses able to make judgments, able to discern right from wrong, good from evil, true good from passing pleasure.”
-Archbishop Christophe Pierre, 2018
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
As ministers of Catholic education, our Church recognizes that we form an apostolate - meaning that like the apostles we have been sent on mission by Jesus Christ. As we share the story of our personal encounter with Jesus Christ, may we also consider the impact of stories in our broader leadership as well.
 |
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Good_News_(Stuttgart)_Logo.svg |
Stories have the power to move us. God hardwired our brains to connect with stories. While listening to a story, the activation in our brains mirrors that of the storyteller (Stephens, Silbertc, & Hasson, 2010). We have the ability to predict the next parts of stories and some of the best stories are those that surprise us or twist what was anticipated. We tell stories naturally, seeing our lives in the context of settings, characters, themes and plot.
Stories possess incredible cultural weight. The stories that communities tell over and over convey that which the group values and holds as important (Hammond, 2015). These stories tell the tales of the heroes and protagonists of our organizations and inspire listeners to emulate the actions of the giants upon whose shoulders we stand.
As storytellers, we have the ability to choose the heroes that get honored, the actions that we value, the metrics by which we judge success, and the ways in which we expect the community to behave. Everything tells the stories of our schools: from the news that we share in our newsletters to the data that we decide to collect/construct to the words that we use during graduation ceremonies, welcome nights, and faculty meetings. All of it contributes to the overall narrative of our schools (Deal and Petersen, 2016).
Marshall Ganz (2009) frames stories within the context of leadership in three movements: the story of self, the story of us, and the story of now.
As you tell people your story - why have you said yes to leading at your school at this time in this capacity - you start to rally others to craft, share, and repeat a story of us - why they have similarly answered the call to serve in this place, at this time, in this way. As we build this collective tale of us - who we are as a school, what we value and hold as sacred - we can inspire people to tell the story of now: the motivating account that shows the gap between our aspirations and reality, providing the necessary spark for change.
Tell your story.
Share the story of your school.
Inspire action, creating even more good news.
_Logo.svg){kind=link}