In this article, Lesley Gosling, Managing Director of Q. Learning, answers the question often asked of Q. Learning consultants, ‘so what self development do you do?’ Here, Lesley lets you in on what it was like for her to go to Spain and to learn the latest in the art of telling stories about journeys (a common metaphor used in change management).

“How would you like an article about getting around the ghost towns in Spain, or about train journeys in Corsica, or stepping well off the beaten track in Madagascar?” We were practising pitching articles to Dan Linstead, editor of the Wanderlust magazine, and he was looking interested. We were the lucky 20 on the ‘Travellers Tales’ course and he was one of the tutors.

Apparently, you can arrive in Granada via plane, boat, train, coach or bus. But my little group had arrived by car. We drove confidentally up and up to the rose coloured Alhambra Palace and, as I speak French – er, not Spanish – I was dispatched for directions to the Casa Di Capitel Nazari Hotel (16th Century). So in my English southern accent and in a mixture of operatic Italian and forgotten French, I asked, “Donde esta hotel Nazari, par favore?” She pursed her lips, took a sharp intake of breath and uttered, “Take a taxi.”

The Albaicin, historic area of Granada, is open to pedestrians and public transport only. The hotel, well hidden in the backstreets, would have an American whistling. Beams, inner courtyards, ceramic tiles, whitewashed walls, tapestries. It was home for four days and smelt permanently of incense and coffee. A step away were church bells clanging, hippies laughing, guitars strumming and the click of cameras as visitors clattered across cobbles. We needed all this to learn to pay attention to sensory specific experiences. It was not unusual to come across a fellow participant grinding the leaves of an unknown botanical specimen and inhaling deeply.

Many hours were devoted to humour and timing, lead by Chris Stewart, wealthy author of ‘Driving over lemons’. (N.B. it is possible to be successful.) And we learned from the wits amongst us as we practised the 16 types of humorous writing indicated. Here’s an extract from a piece by Steph Lacey, a script writer; “The guard had been trying to communicate something to me for several minutes and now indicated that I should lean sideways as if standing on a ship listing to starboard. He pointed to the ceiling and suddenly I jumped with excitement. Remembering his 5 minute jigging, I exclaimed, “earthquake!” “Si.”, he responded and I thought a celebratory hug was coming my way. It didn’t.”
Finally, the hard-nosed commercial bits flowed like tsunamis from Jonathan Lorie, a professed life-long journalist and travel book writer. The message he shouted was ‘don’t give up the day job!’ together with top tips on sending in unsolicited articles to newspapers on Monday/Tuesday (magazines on Thursday/Friday) and never, ever, at all appearing judgemental.

Now, as we all know, nothing is more stressful than having your own self development in sight. Only the week before, cancelling had seemed the very best option. The gift of not going meant I could.....well, sleep, relax, get fit, catch up on emails, remind myself who my friends and family are. So, was the ‘Travellers Tales’ worth it?

Never again will I put out an unedited article that I have not read out loud to a critical audience. Nor will I write without a focussed quest. I promise that I will have a powerful hook in the first line and I will describe smells, colours and sounds. And more – I will pass on storytelling messages to many leaders; you too may learn the dark arts and have them tattooed on your memory.

P.S. I know there are rumours of my sitting calmly in an open air cafe whilst a course member, wearing a white napkin on her head, tied on with the wire of my iPOD earphones, laid her hands on my swollen neck. That was not part of the course but the waiter would like to know why, as he seemed particularly uninformed about Nmibian shaeman traditions.