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As I began to adopt Snowden's approach, I started to better understand how this method differed from tradition- al techniques. I have built a significant business with narrative projects that break with almost all market research paradigms. I call this narrative method "radically open." I hope this article inspires you to adopt some of the tech- niques and radically break with the bad habit of asking questions. Collecting Stories PHASE 1: A powerful narrative method incorporates three key principles: don't ask questions, don't analyze, and make sense of it all collaboratively. To be honest, I do ask a few questions. However, narrative questions differ from those in regular qual research. In a tradi- tional qual practice, I start by asking open-ended questions then narrow down to more explicit questioning. To be certain I've captured all possible motives, I break up the subject into sub-fields of interest. In narrative projects, I start with unmonitored storytelling with 25 to 30 participants gathered in one large room and separated into homogenous sub- groups of five. I hire a student for each table to help keep the process on track. My participants arrive already informed about the subject I want to share with them. I start the session by setting the context, explaining that I am not yet interested in understanding the group's motivations. I ask the group to come up with as many lively stories as possible. Each anecdote should contain something they've experienced about the subject or heard from others and need not be long or fantastic. Each subgroup passes around "the talking stick" (a recording device). Anyone who feels like sharing a story does so, without discussion or interrup- tion from the other participants. Inspired by the stories they've heard, participants come up with their own stories, while the student facilitator numbers and titles each one. During the session, I use five to six prompts that set the context and elicit stories that inform our research objec- tives. For instance, in a project about drinking and driving, my first prompt was: "You are at a party and the talk turns to drinking and driving. What experiences or hear-say stories could you share if you wanted to express the senti- ment: 'That was a close call'?" In this way, I typically gather 250 - 400 stories within 90 minutes. All the stories have titles, which might reveal more than the actual stories. The narrative process can be used for any topic worth researching. In the begin- ning, it might be difficult to relinquish the sense of control that comes from asking specific questions and sub-questions, but the stories this process elicits are closer to the hearts of the target group than tradi- tional focus group outcomes. By refusing to moderate or steer the consumer toward self-understanding, the participant feels freer to share. Making Sense of Stories PHASE 2: In this second workshop phase, we replace conscious, goal-directed action steps by a collaborative, associative process. I typically host two separate four-hour workshops, one with the target group narrowed down to 15 participants sepa- rated into homogenous subgroups of five, and one with the client. Ideally the latter group comprises nine to 15 participants representing sales, business, research, marketing, etcetera. I select approximate- ly 120 representative stories and tape them on the wall in random order. Each group is given 30 to 40 minutes to read all of the stories. They need not remember anything spe- cial and may take notes if they wish. After this "narrative submersion," I start two parallel assignments. One follows an asso- ciative, seemingly unstructured way of thinking, where none of the participants can influence the outcome too much. The other is an explicit task; its main goal is to satisfy the conscious need for goal- directed action. Conscious and Side Tasks I follow the same process in both the participant and the client workshops, using any differences in outcomes as a helpful insight source. Generally, the aver- age marketer and business developer share a rough idea of the challenges for consum- ers in their category. This conscious, sub- jective task yields findings comparable to the outcomes of traditional focus groups. Q U A L I TAT I V E R E S E A R C H C O N S U LTA N T S A S S O C I AT I O N 25 I n 1989, Hans Ruelle taught that while we do have to ask questions, this might be an inefficient way of getting infor- mation; our art is to learn to gain insight the proper way. In due time, I discovered that asking "Why?" will only give you the most directly accessible and socially acceptable answer. With this notion in mind, I worked on ways to minimize answers that were really rationalizations. Eight years ago, I attended a workshop by Dave Snowden who promoted a narrative type of research that abandons almost all types of questions as well as our normal ways of analyzing and making sense of what research participants tell us. Instead, Snowden offers methods to co-create sense-making between client, researcher, and participants without relying on "rational" analytical thinking.