Story, Symphony and Meaning

As I was reading Daniel Pink’s Whole New Mind, several concepts really resonated with me. These concepts were: Story, Symphony and Meaning.

Story: As I have recently moved from more technical training to professional and leadership development training, I am thinking more and more about how to make training concepts more meaningful through story. As I read through the chapter on story, I could not help but think about one of the most personally meaningful books that I have read in the past few years. This is Po Bronson’s “What Should I do With My Life”, which is also recommended by Daniel Pink in the last part of the chapter on Meaning. Bronson’s book contains short stories on how various people made shifts in their careers to find more meaning in their life. Each story is inspirational in its own way, and I recommend it to anyone, who is thinking about a career shift or wanting to get more out of their work.

Symphony: Daniel Pink defines symphony as “the ability to put together the pieces…to see relationships between seemingly unrelated fields; to detect broad patterns rather than to deliver specific answers; and to invent something new by combining elements nobody else thought to pair.” I think an aptitude for symphony is the most important thing for a curriculum developer to have. Someone who is able to help people see things, and patterns that they did not see before by making connections sums up the job of a training developer.

Meaning: My favorite quote is one that my father gave to me at a time that was struggling with what to do with my life. It said, “The secret of life is learning what you have to give.” As Daniel Pink proposes in his chapter on meaning, more and more people are trying to find purpose in their job, emphasizing true meaningful work over moneymaking goals. Having had past struggles whether to leave a higher paying job that did not fulfill my life purpose, I can certainly identify with this struggle. I have recently done research on generations in the workplace and have found that a common trait among the newest generation of workers is their strong desire to have meaning in their work.

Below is a picture and word story that I created to describe a time in my life where I was searching for meaning in my work. I was struggling between two fields, and could not make a decision, so I chose a third alternative. In the end, the third alternative helped me combine my two passions in a new way. I think this is a good example of a personal “symphony”. I tried to use a technique that was suggested in the book, so I wrote a mini-saga, which is an extremely short story, of fifty words no more, no less. My mini-saga accompanies the pictures. I have to admit that editing myself to fifty words was truly difficult, and I think I did give up some of the emotional value of the story. I am still struggling with connecting photos and story, but the process was a good learning experience, and I think combining mini-sagas with brief visuals is a good practice for making training and learning experiences more concise and meaningful. The voicethread tool was not very intuitive for me, but I think it has a lot of potential that I have not fully realized.

See my symphony mini-saga below: