Going dragon hunting

A little off topic, this one but wanted to capture it, anyway.

I was discussing with 2 colleagues (Different ones this time, Steve and Hanna) putting together a series of events for a uni marketing team on the use of social media. We were thinking about how to structure a facilitated discussion day. Steve mentioned helping the group to identify its perceived risks by looking for the” dragons”.

A little context: Steve and Hanna were both on my recent DS workshop in which I borrowed a quote from Pip Hardy, a DS for health expert. (She got it from someone else but I haven’t be able to attribute it yet).

She said that all the most powerful stories have a dragon in them. The story is the tale of the journey around or into its jaws.

Pip helps people experiencing serious illness to tell their stories. In this context the idea of dragons is particularly meaningful. It’s an image which really stuck in my mind.

In our case, we’re thinking about helping a team of professionals to write a story about the future; identify the “dragons” (the hurdles, risks, barriers, doubts etc), then come up with”stories” about how their future selves have battled, avoided or succumbed to the “dragons”.

Whether we explain it to the people in the session like that or not, I’m not sure. It might be a little out there for some.

I guess, this is scenario planning, which is already an established technique but I like the idea of thinking about it in storytelling terms. 

And I bagsy the term “Dragon Analysis”. You heard it here first!