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?