Vishnu and Naruda were sitting in deep conversation and Naruda asked “What is time Lord Vishnu?” Vishnu replied “Why don’t you cross the river and find out?” So Naruda went down to the river and swam to the other side, climbed up the bank and proceeded to the village where he stopped at the first […]
Tag: powerful stories
Organising Principles are the foundations that provide and guide beliefs, behaviours, thinking, understanding and practice and what is expected of people within the organisation. There is no organisation possible without organising principles. Organising Principles include Vision, Mission, Values, Measures, Purpose and Promise statements. A hallmark of powerful organisations is that they regularly evaluate and remind […]
There’s nothing quite like a crisis to focus attention and galvanize groups, organisations and even countries. Many organisations routinely use crisis as a method of focusing attention, stimulating action, accelerating the pace of change and altering trajectory and focus. Typical organisational crises include reputational crisis, financial problems, product problems and recalls, conflict, competitor action & […]
From Idea to Impact So you have an idea for a story. It might be for a simple social media post or an elaborate brand campaign. But before you start writing, pause. A great story isn’t just told; it’s designed. The right questions can transform a good idea into an unforgettable narrative that resonates with […]
We may as well ask “why do people read newspapers?”, or “why do people watch television?” Somewhere in our DNA there’s a compelling vibrating strand asking so be told a story, because stories help us to survive and experience happiness. For as long as human beings have had language, children have learnt about hunting, travelling, […]
“The Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert talk about the two “hungers”. There is the Great Hunger and there is the Little Hunger. The Little Hunger wants food for the belly; but the Great Hunger, the greatest hunger of all, is the hunger for meaning… There is ultimately only one thing that makes human beings deeply […]
There is a magical link between life story and the way we construct our selfhood/sense-of-self and the experience of the world around us. This timeline helps you unpack and deconstruct your own narrative and then craft it into the Heroes Journey it deserves to be – reframe and recreate it to get what it is you […]
Life is story. What we know of the world and ourselves is made up of countless stories that we hear, tell to ourselves and share with others. But stories don’t just describe, they literally construct who we are, our relationship to the world and the way in which the world relates to us. You can see […]
Leadership, who should be able to take an objective view of everything that is happening in an organisation, usually become increasingly removed from the inner story circles. And often when they hear the stories, they will have been sanitised and edited because thats what everyone wants leadership to know. By their absence from the day-to-day […]
I am the grandchild of the warrior men and women that Hintsa and Sekhukhune led, the patriots that Cetshwayo and Mphephu took to battle, the soldiers Moshoeshoe and Ngungunyane taught never to dishonour the cause of freedom. My mind and my knowledge of myself is formed by the victories that are the jewels in our […]
Stories are not simply reflections of reality, but rather, they are constructs that actively shape our internal experiences and our understanding of the world. This is how individual narratives and cultural contexts interact: In summary, individual narratives and cultural contexts are in a constant state of interaction, with each influencing and shaping the other. Cultural […]
Once Upon a Time…A water bearer from a dusty African village had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it. The other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of […]
Stories, whether they emerge from external inputs or are generated internally through thought processes, play a significant role in shaping our experiences and biological responses. This process begins in the nervous system, which is intricately connected to both the endocrine and immune systems. Understanding these connections offers a deeper insight into how our thoughts and […]
At first the idea may seem a little puzzling – what has storytelling got to do with the world of work? Well, quite a lot it seems. Think of this – whatever we know of the world and of ourselves is grounded in story; either stories that we have been told or stories that we’ve […]
Stories come and go but some hang around, influencing, teaching, inspiring and enlightening. But stories can also even destroy and damage individuals and organisations. A story may be considered powerful if it fulfills the following criteria; the more criteria met, the more powerful the story: People are surrounded by bits of information. All competing for […]