storytelling and knowledge management
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SUPPORTING DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATION
Storytelling and Narrative
The Role of Storytelling in
Knowledge Sharing and
Organisational Change
29-31 May 2002KM Champions in AfricaKnowledge Management WorkshopMaputo, Mozambique
Story.. a definition
Story n., pl. –rieA narration of a chain of events told or written in prose or verse
People live and act narratively…
…as individuals
“I am a respected professional”
“I am a mother”
“I am progressing in my career”
“I have been passed over”
“I am an important part of the organisation I work for”
“I am a faceless cog in a bureaucratic machine”
People live and act narratively...
Asteriod B-612
1909 Internation
al Astronomical Congress
…with others
The Turkish Astronomer
…Grown-ups are like that
People live and act narratively...
“unless we have the critical tools to understand in which story we stand, our praxis runs the risk of prolonging not only the problem but the problem story. Often a problem will be solved only by dissolving the story”
-Alastair Macintyre, After Virtue
… in organisationsMy organisation is transforming
the lives of others.
The management talk about
change but they don’t live it.
Young people get no encouragement in my
organisation.
Stories for Organizational Change
Seeking buy-in for Knowledge Management at the World Bank
Steve Denning – World Bank
Discovered storytelling by accident
Has since sought to crystallize the process of storytelling for change
An unlikely storyteller
Steve Denning12 Steps to a Springboard Story
1. What change are you seeking?
2. Think of an incident where the change was in part or in whole implemented
3. Who is the single protagonist in the story?
4. Is the single protagonist archetypal for your specific audience?
5. When did the incident happen?
6. Where did the story happen?
1. How fully does the story embody the change idea?
2. Can the story be extrapolated to more fully embody the idea?
3. Does the story make clear what would have happened without the change idea?
4. Has the story been stripped of unnecessary detail?
5. Does the story have an authentically happy ending?
6. Does the story link to the purpose to be achieved in telling it?
Stories for Analysis and Planning
Dave Snowden – IBM Complex Adaptive Systems
– Organisations are too complex to understand from a mechanistic point of view
Narrative Databases– Stories hold the key to bring out the truth in
organisations– Storytellers don’t need special expertise
Emergent Knowledge– We imagine we follow a more logical path than
we do– Retrospective coherence
Example: Merger of two large pharmaceutical firms.
Give 250 people each a digital video camera
Have them each interview two people who represent the future and the past of the organisation
Ask questions like: “Your daughter is an eco-activist. How do you convince her to work for your firm?”
At a workshop, have staff watch random samplings of stories and bring out archetypal themes / characters.
Capture the results in a narrative database containing video, audio, and text
Have graphic artists render images of the archetypes.
The CynicThe Young
IdealistCreating fables of the organisation• Scenario planning• Understanding problem• Mapping the future
A typical scenario…
Listen to what I have to say
about Knowledge
Management!
Ho hum.. same old strategy,
new name
Another consultant telling us what to
do….great
I wonder if I can get away to check my
email.
A storytelling approach…
Let me tell you a story about a
network in Nang Rong, Thailand.
Hmmm… we could
probably do that with
our project in Kenya.
We do some of those things
already, perhaps we could adapt
some others.
That would never work for us but it gives me an idea of soemthing we
could try.
Storytelling is an act of co-creation
People want to own their own ideas and initiatives
100% influence = 100% isolation
King Midas
It is a loss of control…
…but the control was a myth in the first place
Stories Occupy a Third Space
Longitude – by Dava Sobel
18th Century the challenge to
find east-west location at sea
20,000 pounds John Harrison The Astronomer
Royal 30 years A petition to
the king
How often has your organisation behaved like the Astronomer Royal?
Who is else is using Storytelling?
SUPPORTING DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATION
Comments.. Questions… Reactions…
Stories…
Life in an Image – Group Work 1
1. Choose an article you have with you that has meaning or sentimental value. Something that is important to you. If you don’t have something, think of something you own at home which may not have great monetary value but is of great personal value to you.
2. Find a partner
3. Tell your partner why that object you have or are thinking of is important to you.
4. Have them tell you about their object that is important to them.
Group work 2
"stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the stories individuals or nations live by and tell themselves, and you change the individuals and nations."
"When we have made an experience or a chaos into a story we have transformed it, made sense of it, transmuted experience, domesticated the chaos"
"Great leaders understand the power of the stories they project to their people," he writes. "They understand that stories can change an age, turn an era around".
"Stories can drive you mad... Stories can heal profound sicknesses of the spirit".
"To poison a nation, poison its stories. A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself."
Ben Okri – The Joys of Storytelling
Steve Denning12 Steps to a Springboard Story
1. What change are you seeking?
2. Think of an incident where the change was in part or in whole implemented
3. Who is the single protagonist in the story?
4. Is the single protagonist archetypal for your specific audience?
5. When did the incident happen?
6. Where did the story happen?
1. How fully does the story embody the change idea?
2. Can the story be extrapolated to more fully embody the idea?
3. Does the story make clear what would have happened without the change idea?
4. Has the story been stripped of unnecessary detail?
5. Does the story have an authentically happy ending?
6. Does the story link to the purpose to be achieved in telling it?
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