The Power of Personal Narratives: the Successful Potato Farmer

sites.google.com/site/goblinpotato/potatoes

It is a classic triumph over adversity tale. A humble potato farmer from Herefordshire, dismayed that supermarkets rejected potatoes that were not 'cosmetically perfect', finds a lucrative niche in the market for posh crisps and high-end gin. The serial entrepreneur is now a multi-millionaire but it wasn't always so.

In a narrative that storytellers would salivate over, the engaging elements of local hero William Chase's tale include: a versatile vegetable, a messy divorce, bankruptcy, running far far away to exotic lands (well Australia), and a triumphant return.

The underdog then risked all in the form of a substantial bank loan, took on an evil giant (aka Tesco), and won- a la David and Goliath, and now his gin and crisp businesses reach towards the stratosphere.

Such stories can have a powerful motivating impact on others. Referred to as recovery narratives in mental health care, personal stories convey hope by demonstrating how individuals can move from trauma and despair towards their goals.

One of our goals is to assemble a multi-dimensional, multi-media repository of 'success' narratives that will illuminate the concept, explore what works for whom, and involve the public in telling their own stories. 

As Mr Chase says 'People love stories, the real stories behind things'. 

www.chasedistillery.co.uk/gin/

Stories of Success at the Heart of the Project

Logo of SparkLondon

I just had a great call with the director of one of our newly confirmed collaborators, SparkLondon. Joanna Yates started out as a Occupational Psychologist, but now runs London's storytelling events organisation, as well as working directly with companies thinking about the stories they tell.

SparkLondon hosts two types of events at present - 'SparkLondon Open Mic' nights, where anyone can tell a story based on the theme of the night. The next events on on 'Adventures in Business Gaffes' (30th July) and 'Glory' (10th August). They also host 'SparkLondon Stories' which are specially produced events with story-tellers from particular groups. The next event, produced in collaboration with Open University, focuses on the stories of sex workers.

Every event is recorded and turned into a podcast. Their podcast now has 30,000 listeners. You can listen to them here.

Speaking to Joanna was fanstastic - she completely understood the complexity of the theme 'success' and had many personal and professional insights into the idea of 'success against the odds', or in 'times of adversity'. She's passionate about learning from what works and uses storytelling to help companies negotiate periods of change. For this reason, I think she'll make a great contribution to the work of collaborator Dr Leah Tomkins on organisational success and our thinking about interpersonal and systems successes.

Joanna is going away to discuss our conversation with her team and come up with some more refined ideas for events and workshops that we can interweave into our residency. She's also going to look at some costings. We'll meet again later this month at one of their events, and Joanna is hoping to come to the collaborators' event on 18th September.

I'm feeling very inspired and am coming to find that stories are at the centre of the research I want to do as well. As a phenomenological psychologist stories hold a tenuous place, but in my PhD I incorporated narrative because I see it as such a pervasive part of being human. I think the stories that we tell as individuals, couples and families, especially at times of adversity, are part of what holds us together (anchors us), and helps us be successful. I am really excited about the prospect of moving forward with these research ideas!

Next meeting is with performance poet, Luke Wright...

Connecting and Relating

Credit: Anthea Sieveking, Wellcome Images

For the project so far I have nominated two collaborators, who are both keen to take part:

Dr Leah Tomkins has a background in classics, then worked in industry for 20 years, including as Director of Change at the Cabinet Office. Like me, she retrained in psychology at Birkbeck and then completed her PhD. She now works in the field of Organisational Studies. I invited Leah because of her understanding of how organisations succeed, and particularly because of her work around the notion of the 'caring leader' and the Heideggerian idea of 'care'. I am also currently collaborating with Leah on a project about experiences of happiness. One area of interest is how achievement and happiness can be bound together - but can involve experiences of anxiety and shame as well. I see Leah's interests fitting well with Michael's and my work on relationships (Leah is also an expert in the IPA method and the phenomenological psychology approaches we use) and foresee her being involved the 'relationships and connectedness' stream, but also she will contribute to our stream on 'individuals and hierarches' as well.

Dr Andreas Aresti and the British Convict Criminology group are committed to developing critical insider perspectives on prison and the experiences of prisoners. Andreas is both an ex-prisoner and an academic. As such, he researches with communities and individuals who are impacted by the prison experience and co-founded the British Convict Criminology movement, which is an emerging theoretical perspective (originating in the US) led by ex-convict/non-convict academics. The group takes a critical perspective to existing criminal justice issues. In particular he has looked at resettlement. I am keen to work with Andreas and other members of British Convict Criminology on the 'relationships and connectedness' stream, to explore further how relationships succeed during time inside, and during the difficult resettlement period. Andy also shares expertise in the IPA methodology, but also works in more collaborative participatory ways with groups and individuals. As well as working academically, he is involved in shaping policy and doing community work, such as mentoring. With his personal and academic experience I also think Andy will be a great contribution towards the 'social contexts and alternative cultures'.