During my reading for a summer course on interviewing, I found this interesting take on the importance of narrative and the aptness of asking questions in order to elicit such stories:
The advantage of asking questions to initiate conversation is that it encourages the other person to talk about him or herself, an approach that Fisher (1984, 1987, 1989) called the narrative paradigm…According to Fisher, five assumptions underlie the narrative paradigm theory: ‘(1) Humans are essentially storytellers, (2) human communication is achieved fundamentally through stories, (3) through discourse humans use “good reasons” for believing or action, (4) humans have an inherent narrative logic that guides their assessments of communication, and (5) the world as we know it is a set of stories that allows each of us to construct and adapt our realities” (Fisher, 1987). Interview techniques can be particularly helpful at eliciting such stories and getting people to talk about themselves.
-Jonathan Amsbary and Larry Powell, Interviewing: Situations and Contexts, p. 19
I’ve made it a practice in my daily life to be constantly asking questions of people. I was first made a conscious decision to do this after reading Isaac Watts’ book (which I highly recommend) called The Improvement of the Mind. He writes,
If you happen to be in company with a merchant or a sailor, a farmer or a mechanic, a milk-made or a spinster, lead them into a discourse of the matters of their own peculiar province or profession; for every one knows, or should know, his own business best. In this sense a common mechanic is wiser than a philosopher. By this means you may gain some improvement in knowledge from every one you meet (p. 80).
Becoming an ‘interviewer’ has resulted in me getting to hear many stories I would never have otherwise heard. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Questions often illicit stories. And stories can lead to all kinds of good things. Besides from the entertainment value, you might learn something new. Do not be so prideful as to think that you cannot learn something from everyone.
