Viv McWaters – Change your story Change your performance
Workshop Title:
Change your story, Change your performance
Workshop Description:
Who do you want to be? We can all be ourselves, and also perform our way into other roles. We carry our stories of who we are as armour – armour against change, armour against who else we can be. In this workshop we’ll explore active ways of discovering the stories we use that define who we are and how to use the power of story to explore different versions of ourselves.
If people got the best of the session what would they leave with?
They’ll have fun. What else they leave will depends. The workshop will explore the type of stories we hold close and how they influence how we act with others. People will leave with an enhanced understanding of their own stories, and how this influences how they show up in the world.
How is this session connected to the conference theme?
Cultural change requires all of us to step into roles that may not be natural to us. This workshop explores how we can use story to explore those different roles and how cultural change can start with each of us, individually.
About the Workshop Presenter:
I once wanted to be an astronomical photographer but settled for agricultural journalist, which caused quite a hoo-ha as women weren’t supposed to go to agricultural college back then. Rules weren’t going to stop me (I had the rules changed). Now there’s a clue about how I still approach life!
I’ve worked as a journalist, and in communications, and community education, training and strategy development. Now I specialise in group facilitation and participatory evaluation and draw on my background in the natural sciences and arts. I help groups discover new approaches to the work that matters for them. I design workshops, conferences and training to bring them to life. I am excited and enthusiastic about what I do.
I studied agricultural science at Longerenong Agricultural College, and have a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies from RMIT University, and a Masters in Applied Science (Agriculture and Rural Development) from the University of Western Sydney.
Improvisation is a constant source of inspiration, as is nature, play, and the surprising things that people say and do. I’m researching the role of applied improvisation in preparing people to respond in uncertainty, particularly disaster response.
I live by the beach in southern Australia. I have worked in over 30 different countries, mainly in Asia and Africa, which has helped fuel my passion for birdwatching and street art.
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