Working It Out in Public
A developing Story Dynamics learning series about understanding situations, finding possibilities and making better arrangements together.
People are trying to find work, sustain care, learn, keep promises and figure out what comes next. These situations overlap. Advice that sounds straightforward from outside can become much more complicated when we look at the people, histories and constraints involved.
I’m Brendan Heidenreich. I’m developing a class and public series that brings actual situations into conversation with practical knowledge, creative work and human–AI collaboration. The aim is to understand more of what is happening and work on what would make a different response possible.
Start with a situation, not a verdict
“Incompetent,” “unreasonable,” “just making excuses.” A label can arrive before the history, competing obligations or missing resources are understood. We can examine specific actions and their effects, compare explanations and ask what else would change our reading.
Feelings belong in that inquiry. Anger may carry knowledge about a wrong; care, fear, frustration and hope may be bundled together. Finding better language can help us understand those concerns without dismissing them or treating a feeling as a complete explanation.
The learning goals are explicit. The verdict about a particular person or situation is not predetermined.
What we would learn and practice
- Move beyond name-calling toward specific actions, conditions and patterns.
- Distinguish feelings, observations, interpretations and judgments, while exploring how they interact.
- Bring relevant history and different perspectives into view, including what remains unknown or disputed.
- Examine rules, resources, responsibilities and who carries the uncovered work.
- Develop and negotiate possible responses, including useful paid roles and direct assistance.
- Check effects and revise our own accounts, including AI-generated ones.
Many situations, a shared inquiry
The proposed series would grow from several situations, including questions and experience brought by viewers and participants. Someone seeking help may also have knowledge, skills or connections to contribute. Another person may need straightforward assistance. Participation does not have to mean taking responsibility for everything.
The work could move between facilitated conversations, maps, short videos, source material and practical attempts, followed by checking what changed. Some people may watch or read; others may contribute a question, a resource, a correction or an agreed role.
Intellectual and professional depth can coexist with character, humor, music, visual storytelling and the experience of discovering something together. Curiosity and wonder matter alongside urgency. The developing format should make complexity more navigable without steering viewers toward a preselected conclusion.
Principles to work with
An incomplete explanation or a blocked route need not be the end of the inquiry. We can investigate what is happening, develop alternatives and find out what would make them workable.
- People exceed the labels placed on them. Understanding more does not erase responsibility.
- Accounts can be corrected. Recognition, an offer, an agreement and a completed outcome are different.
- Support makes participation possible. Roles need workable scope, resources, compensation where agreed, and limits.
- Some constraints require money, authority or new capacity. A clearer map alone does not remove them.
The site’s three factors keep reality, pressure and worth in view. Shared principles can develop through practice and disagreement.
Actual situations, careful representation
The work draws on actual situations, including those still in progress. Composites can combine recurring experiences and change identifying details. Illustrations and reconstructed scenes are not documentary records; possible continuations are not completed results. Source material should remain capable of correcting the story we think we are telling.
Sharing identifiable experiences requires permission for the material and audience. Public learning needs a private working layer. Practical assistance does not depend on publicity, research participation or adopting the project’s interpretation.
Help develop the series
This is a developing proposal, not an announced enrollment program or a promise to resolve every submitted situation. The site already contains concepts, visual work and methods to explore; the format and arrangements for a sustained series are still being worked out.
- Contribute to the inquiry: bring a relevant question, experience, source, skill or introduction.
- Commission useful work: explore a bounded piece of research, visual explanation, learning design or situation analysis, with scope and compensation agreed.
- Support development and continuity: help sustain coordination, facilitation, creative production, learning and the basic stability needed to keep working.
Support and paid work can help this develop without requiring the people involved to absorb unlimited unpaid obligations. See Participate & Support for the current support route.
Explore the wider work
Start with When needs collide, Whole Story Assembly or Generative Accountability. The About page traces the work’s longer development.
Related reading: Alison Bailey’s On Anger, Silence, and Epistemic Injustice examines anger’s epistemic significance.
