Stories

The English West Country is the land of Mike’s forebears. It’s also a land of storytelling, myths and legends in the Celtic tradition. Fairies, or piskies as they are known in Cornwall, are endemic throughout Cornish folk-lore. Cultures throughout the world have embraced stories about little people-like creatures, neither human or divine, who existed on a fourth dimension. In many cultures fairies or spirits are the guardians of the natural environment. Normally us humans are unable to sense the presence of fairies, but just sometimes and for some people, conditions are right for interaction. Piskies are not normally wicked, but they can be mischievous, and will happily lead you astray! Cornish folk-lore is alive with stories of these interactions, which normally carry a moral dimension. In a remote part of the Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall in the heart of the West Country, we met a fairy story-teller who who provided us with new insights about the power and potential of story-telling.

Storytelling is the art of sharing events in words using drama, images and sounds. Stories are shared throughout the world for entertainment, celebration, mutual understanding, education and the passing on of culture and values. These principles apply within cultures, societies, organisations and enterprises. Because participants contribute their own experiences and imagination, stories are co-created with them. As a consequence stories are more easily remembered and have the potential to create emotional engagement and therefore to be more profoundly transformational than the equivalent facts and figures. We use storytelling and facts to create transformational change towards sustainability. We share storytelling skills in our sustainable leadership workshops.