Category Archives: Organizational Storytelling

The online journal, Emergence: Complexity and Organization, presented a Special Double Issue: Complexity and Storytelling (Volume 7, Numbers 3 & 4, 2005) with guest editors Ken Baskin and David Boje. The journal is available by paid subscription, and individual articles are available for purchase, as well.

I’ve been coming across more and more management-consulting firms that use story as a consulting tool. One firm whose Web site presents its story-driven message in dramatic, flash-animation fashion is Envisioning and Storytelling, a Vancouver British Columbia company that uses story work with resort developers and other clients to create … Continue reading →

David Boje of the University of New Mexico is one of the preeminent scholars studying organizations through their storytelling. He has produced a nice annotated bibliography on storytelling and consulting. I admit that I find Boje’s scholarship a bit densely packed and intellectually challenging. He also issues a rather scathing … Continue reading →

Last April, at the conference of Career Masters Institute in Denver, I heard a great entrepreneurial presentation by Laurie Taylor of Origin Institute. Laurie mentioned that her partner, James Fischer, was about to publish in the unusual but emerging genre of the “business novel.” Any work that uses story to … Continue reading →

This just in… Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has announced that — in addition to straying from its tradition 3-ring format (and in fact having NO rings) — it will “have a story line instead of being simply a cavalcade of acts,” writes Glen Collins in the New … Continue reading →

The Ryan Group has proclaimed The New Narrative Age, stating that: This new cultural phenomenon is virtually changing the organization’s fundamental approach to training, learning, knowledge transfer, strategy, change, performance, and competitiveness. Conceptually, the “narrative age” recognizes the implicit value of knowledge (many times untapped knowledge) embedded within the body-organization. … Continue reading →

“We believe in practicing and living in a narrative world where everything is shaped by our relationship to story.” — Steve Denning, p. 159 of The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative.

This article comes from Evelyn Clark:

Have you or any of your leaders ever been frustrated because your organization’s presentations, memos, or other messages don’t seem to be heard — not to mention heeded? Are you tired of reiterating the same policies and procedures to employees˜only to have them fall on deaf ears again and again? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, take heart: there is a powerful solution to the problem that will significantly enhance adherence to your organization’s policies and desired practices. The solution is innovative, it’s easier to implement than writing a policy manual that gets ignored — and it effectively shapes behavior. It is an approach called corporate storytelling, or “managing by storying around.”

As discussed repeatedly in the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, and other leading business publications, the use of storytelling in businesses and other organizations is more than a valid concept; it’s an essential, proven communication practice. Motivating people to reach the organization’s stated goals is “a big part of a CEO’s job,” says award-winning writer, director, and screenwriting coach Robert McKee in his HBR interview. “To do that, he or she must engage their emotions, and the key to their hearts is a story.” Continue reading →

My business-communication students played Pitch-a-Story at the end of the fall 2005 semester and really enjoyed it. Students found it applicable to job interviewing in that the game helped them develop their abilities to think on their feet. Next semester, I’ll have students play the game during the time they’re … Continue reading →

The second day of the April 2005 weekend of storytelling was sponsored by the Golden Fleece group. Keynote speaker Molly Catron, speaking on “Difficult Stories to Simulate Dialogue and Change Organizations’ Culture,” was a hoot. Though she didn’t get to talk about many of them because she told so many … Continue reading →