1) What is it?

1) What is it?

Stories - can be many things - numbers can be stories - the real story part of numbers is the interpretation of the numbers - what they mean & to whom - they can be shared as a story in visual form, in people's responses to questions about them or by people explaining what the numbers mean to them .... Stories can also be video clips, interviews, audio clips, scenarios & debriefing discussions etc. etc.

Stories have the following qualities in common:

• a setting
• a theme (or a few)
• characters
• emotional hook

I might suggest 'experiential hook' or 'meaningful hook' that helps us experience a feeling or emotion related to the story, rather than simply 'emotional hook'

A setting or context

• stories share an experience... why something was done.. how it was done.. was it successful... what happened in the end...
• stories also communicate things that might not show up in a spreadsheet...
• impact... affects people, affects our clients, ourselves,
• together.. combined.. we can share our experiences and how they affected our clients... together we will have a more clear picture of our work...

it= demonstrating impact through stories

stories create a dialogue between numbers, people, values and experiences. They have flexibility and mobility and are used to connect thoughts, people and communities.

Telling stories with numbers- In a discussion with a statistician I asked her what she liked about statistics. Why did she go into this field? She said that she felt that what she is doing benefits the community. She sees numbers that have context; there are no right or wrong answers and there is more than one correct approach. In her telling me this story and having her articulate this to me I gained a better understanding of what she did as well as dispelled some of my assumptions about statistics. It became clear to me that we had more things in common and our motivation for doing what we do crossed paths. After her reflection she said, " I had never really thought about that before".

We need to define the 'it' as part of the first paragraph here. If the 'it' is 'demonstrating impact through stories', then we need to define both 'impact' & 'stories' - see some ideas around stories below.

Some useful definitions for impact in this context (from dictionary.com) -

• Influence; effect: the impact of Einstein on modern physics.
• The force exerted by a new idea, concept, technology, or ideology: the impact of the industrial revolution.

We're really talking about 'demonstrating the impact of what we do at CTLT on the UBC teaching and learning community (and beyond) through stories'

The UBC teaching & learning community includes those who learn (people in many roles) & those who teach (again, people in many roles)

Definition of story

- capture the topic/message or request for action is in a clear concise way. - using words, visuals (images/media/video/audio), numbers or a combination of different mediums to present the topic/idea/theme/message or request for action -story should be portable and be easily shared.

link to why Michelle & co want numbers all the time - purpose - & show that with stories will get numbers & more

Cindy & Amy - infographics are also a quick way to share numbers (the content) - need to put them in context - infographic can help do that

Need to link to objectives of CTLT - how we have an effect that helps us & others achieve our objectives

Bring in demonstrating word - talked about impact & stories - need to talk now about how to demonstrate ...