Dialogue with Wisconsin Public Television

On April 25th I facilitated a dialogue session with Wisconsin Public Television (WPT). There were three WPT staff present and three WCH Story Team staff present, including me. I wanted to know four main things: 

1.     What are your general thoughts about collaborating with WCH.

2.     What were the pluses and minuses of the collaboration?

3.     For people captured on video, were there differences between those who had been through our story training and/or story coaching or not? 

4.     What worked and what could be improved? 

In general, one of the most incredible lessons learned is that Fred, Lori and Andy all wished they had attended one of our training's. They all thought it would have helped them understand what we were doing and the story arc we use. (This could potentially be something we offer in the future to our colleagues at WPT). "What might have been helpful would be to see your training – recognize the way people are framing or phrasing things." Everyone at the table, WPT and WCH alike, valued the collaboration and would like to see it continue. 


In terms of what worked, all WPT folks agreed that the collaboration took a turn for the better with a strong leadership role defined, namely Alan, "It took a while for the project to get some focus – we started in Feb of 2011 and it wasn’t coming together until early last fall; Alan took the ball and ran with it." Alan's leadership was very valued by all involved. 


Regarding differences in story training participants, it was generally felt that people who had been through a story training and/or story coaching were more efficient interviewees during video capture, " Coaching worked out really well.”


WPT loved working with people who "got" story, "Rare to work with partners that are so into story. It’s more often people are interested in message points or talking points or content areas or pedagogy – so it’s a rare privilege to work with people who respect story."


A lesson learned by WCH is that it is helpful and necessary to have a home for stories - both in process and ready to launch. There needs to be a place where we can go to view the video during the editing process. It did work for WCH staff to go to WPT early on to view the videos. There was tremendous growth and development – from where we stared to where we are now. The leadership has been great to see.