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Meaning – Stories are used to convey meaning, whether it is how to close a sale, reprimand a subordinate, motivate someone, give a presentation or something more profound
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Planning – Cognitive scientist William Calvin suggests that we gradually acquire the ability to formulate plans as a result of storie s we hear in childhood. From stories, a child learns to imagine various courses of action and their impact on others and then decide on an appropriate response.
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Retention and Memory – story is central to human intelligence and memory. Researchers have demonstrated that students remember story-based writing far more easily and retain a higher level of detail than they do from the style of writing that is normally used in textbooks. Stories are an aspect of the human spirit; they provide a natural means for organizing our memories and key values. James Hillman, a post Jungian writer has suggested that you can only have experience “once you have reflected upon it” – the idea suggests that experience is always
manufactured after the experience has occurred when we think and talk about “what happened”. In other words, we are the active agents of our own experience; we are making it all up through the stories we tell. A good story serves to define relationships, “things”, sequences of events, cause and effect dynamics, relative importance, personalities and outcomes amongst other myriad possibilities. These elements are likely to be remembered as a complex whole. This fact suggests the great usefulness of storytelling in management, leadership and strategic planning.
Sometime reality is too complex. Stories give it form. Jean Luc Godard – French Filmmaker
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Consensual Reality – Stories are used to create consensual reality – agreement around the “truth” of the story creates a sense of shared values, purpose and togetherness. These identity creating stories can be about: who we are // what we are like and what we like // who and what we dislike // what is our experience // where we are going // where we come from
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Collapse Time – Stories collapse and move beyond time – a story can convey complex information that occurred over eons within a few seconds
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Leading -A leader who truly enables change is one who creates and tells a story; a vision that significantly impacts the thoughts, actions and feelings of people who then become followers. An example is Mahatma Gandhi who conveyed the vision that in non-violent struggle, both sides to a conflict could emerge strengthened.
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Knowledge Sharing – Stories educate and share knowledge. Historically, stories have played a key role in transferring knowledge. The epic poems, parables from ancient times and the teachings of all the major religions and cults have all been conveyed via story.
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Emotional stimulation of action – Stories have an emotional impact – they focus attention onto issues (e.g. “our customers are looking for alternative suppliers”) and can stimulate action
There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories. (Ursula K. LeGuin)
The study and practice of storytelling in organisations has recently gained momentum worldwide. Storytelling is multidisciplinary and specialists are drawn from a variety of backgrounds such as writing, advertising, brand management, music, speech and drama, poetry, philosophy, psychology and community work among others. In traditional societies all over the world, storytelling is understood as the very core of personal and community experience of the world and storytelling was used by key roles such as leader, elder, herbalist/shaman/healer.
Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts. (Salman Rushdie)
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