Table of Contents

Narrative as a way of being. The narratives of self: The world of silent servant; The fall; Naming the alternative narrative; Enriching the alternative narrative; Saying goodbye. Invitations to re-humanise our world. Sanibonani to human beings: Human beings as storying beings; Human beings as naming beings; Human beings as interpreting beings; Human beings as knowledgeable beings; Human beings as agents and authors. Re-authorise our world: Taken-for-granted-beliefs and ideas; Whom we authorise to speak; The influence and effects of the taken-for-granted; How to live the life; The effects of the alternative way of living. Re-dream our world through alternative narratives: Invitations into the alternative narrative; The portal into human becoming; From isolation to belonging as a community come alongside; The gifts of the community; What the alternative narrative is not. How to do the work?. Transformational conversations: Creating a transformational space; Transformational listening; Transformational questioning; Transformational documentation. A walk-through of the narrative process: The ground and roots of the work; The relationship that carries the work; A walk-through the narrative process. Putting the narrative process to work: Calling out the stars in the constellation; Thin and thick descriptions of our stories; Naming the constellation of the problem story; Exploring the alternative story; Reflections. Re-authoring the communal narrative: Narrative group- or communal work; Invitation; The narrative process for communities; The story of the community; Constructing the community's social history. Narrative work in the organisational world. The story of scarcity and abundance: Shifting the economics; Implications for the work and world of business. Narrative coaching: The corporate coaching world; The narrative coaching process; The application of the narrative ideas; Stories of work; Ethical implications of the work; The coachee is not alone; An example of practice. Narrative leadership: The industry of leadership; The world that the leadership story is living and leaning into; The taken-for-granted ideas and beliefs informing our understanding of leadership; What the narrative leadership lens is not; Narrative leadership in action: The journey into the mystery of great love. Narrative consulting: Consulting with the narrative approach in South Africa; The story of organisational life; The work of a narrative consultant; The gift of the narrative work to organisations. The transformational nature of the narrative work. Invitations to transformation: Invitations and portals to transformation; Re-authoring as a doorway to transformation; The manifestations of transformation; The unending transformation; The space in between narratives; Communal transformation; Transformation of all that we have known.

About the Author

Chene Swart is a writer, speaker and consultant for Transformations, a consulting company that provides services to small, medium and large businesses, communities, and educational institutions in South Africa, the USA, Canada and the Bahamas. The company has been providing leadership development, training, diversity journeys, coaching, research, facilitation and consulting services to a diverse range of clients over the past 8 years. In her work as an executive and life coach, consultant and trainer in Narrative practices, Chene co-creates transformational learning contexts and journeys. She invites and enables participants to re-write and re-author the stories of their lives as individuals, communities and organizations where they feel stuck or trapped or where the stories they continuously tell are thin conclusions that do not honour the gifts, values, knowledges of these groups or individuals. These individual, communal and organizational alternative narratives open the possibility to write and live into a new preferred future. The key outcomes of these participative journeys are personal and communal agency, new ways of doing and being, and transformed lives. Through Transformations, Chene offers various workshops that apply Narrative practices in the contexts of leadership, stress management, consultancy, coaching, diversity work, empowerment, conflict disillusion, transformation processes and teambuilding. These workshops invite participants into these ideas and practices. Because she believes in the power of this work to transform lives, Chene also trains others to facilitate these workshops. Chene was born and raised by the ocean in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She completed her Doctoral degree in Practical Theology, specialising in pastoral therapy at the University of South Africa in 2006. She now resides in Pretoria.