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Ottawa, Canada
Dr. Charles Lam has since 1971 received training in West Germany (telecom) and university education in U.K. (management) and acquired working experiences in Hong Kong and Canada, in a utility company, Hong Kong Government, a multinational organization and a SME. In his career path, he has acquired qualifications from UK institutions including DBA (1990), MBA (1980) and Chartered Engineer (1978). Since 1986, he has left pure engineering to teaching various subjects of business management in Hong Kong for famous universities of Hong Kong, England and United States. He also has served the society as a member of an advisory committee of the Hong Kong Government for eight years, and as the Hon. Chairman of its Consumer Education Group. Later, he set up his own company to offer services as a consultant, writer and speaker. In his 'Second Half Time', he has been working passionately on integrating Christian values with management knowledge, in the marketplace/workplace ministry, serving hospitals, churches and organizations, as a speaker, consultant, life coach, and the leader of a REST Group based on a life story approach. Charles is currently living with his wife in Canada.

Saturday, February 06, 2010

The power of life story telling (2)


The four stages of life story telling, each of which will be explained in more detail in future postings, are:
• Stage 1 : 「起」(Progress to Date)
• Stage 2 : 「承」(Reasons for Change – the call)
• Stage 3 : 「轉」(Change Initiatives/paradigm shift)
• Stage 4 : 「合」(Future Action Plan)
As mentioned earlier, organisations can also use the story telling approach to implement participative management, as an enhancement to corporate planning.
Life story telling is powerful because it can link up /integrate:
• a person’s past, present (at Stages 1 & 2) with his future (at Stages 3 & 4)
• big, medium and small boundaries, of different dimensions e.g. geographic, networks, thoughts
• a person’s concurrent life paths [1] : private [2], career [3] and societal [4]
• a person’s relationships with God, people and himself
• top-down (from vision, mission, life goals) with bottom-up (self management, time management, short-term objectives) approaches
• rational thinking with feelings (mainly at Stage 2)
A story may be told the second time (and more times) by the same person so that he and the listeners can get more inspirations and learning. Because of individual differences, the same story may inspire different listeners differently. Supported by a suitable group culture, the Q & A process can be the most valuable part, contributing much to Stages 3 and 4.
In a story-based REST Group [5], each member’s future action plan (Stage 4) can also be steered and tracked through joint consultation.
Notes:
[1] A holistic view about life is : life > career > professions/trades > position/work/job
[2] Private life includes life in family, church and close personal networks
[3] A career path may consist of several professions and many positions and jobs
[4] A person’s societal life includes voluntary work, contributions to the society, etc; for an organization, her social responsibility actions
[5] R, E, S, T stand for renewal, empowerment, support network and transformation. Communications on running a story-based REST Group is welcome, with Dr Charles Lam (charles155@gmail.com)
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