2009 – Page 2 – The Narrative Lab

The hardcore nature of stories: significance

One of the indelible lessons I picked up from my training as a narrative therapist is that words are important. If words aresignifiers (that is, they give meaning) then the very same words represent a gateway through which we catch a glimpse of how a person views themselves, the world around them: their reality. And so, the stories we tell about ourselves and the experiences we have in this world are significant ... more significant than you can imagine: they are the gateways [...]

By Aiden Choles|October 8th, 2009|Categories: Uncategorized|0 Comments

Narrative & Constellations

I noticed on Ron Donaldson's blog, The Ecology of Knowledge, that he had participated in a very interesting process - one that combined the use of traditional storytelling and constellationsto find novel solutions to intractable problems. I know a fair amount about the realms of storytelling and intractable problems, but know absolutely nothing about the use of constellations. One could do a massive google search to find out more, but for now, I'm more interested in what the network has to say about constellations? Any [...]

By Aiden Choles|October 6th, 2009|Categories: Narrative|0 Comments

Mirrors with memory

Aristotle said: “The greatest thing by far is to have mastered the metaphor.” And the Spanish philosopher and writer Jose Ortega y Gasset added, “The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man.” Metaphors are bridges connecting the new and the familiar. They help a skeptical audience embrace and value a new idea or concept. Why is that important? This past week we've been in several meetings where we discussed the use of narrative in change management. In essence [...]

By Aiden Choles|October 2nd, 2009|Categories: the narrativelab|Tags: change, change management, metaphor, mindsets, narrative transformation|0 Comments

Allan Grey: “Legend”

This is one of the best examples of the use of narrative in advertising that I've seen in a long time ...

By Aiden Choles|October 2nd, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: advertising, Branding, Narrative|0 Comments

Complex projects

I am not a good project manager. There, I said it! Even 5 years in IBM could not drill the organised thought processes required to manage a big project into me. I'm just not wired for that. That being said however, I don't believe that all projects (I won't go so far to say no projects) lend themselves to being managed with structured, deterministic so-called "Waterfall" methodologies that are so popular in most IT companies. Agile methodologies like SCRUM are [...]

By Aiden Choles|September 30th, 2009|Categories: Management|Tags: Complexity, dissent, diversity, Management, projects|0 Comments

KM defined

KM (or Knowledge Management) is quite a hot topic nowadays. There seem to be two factions, 1 believes that KM in it's existing form is a dying discipine, the other refuses to believe that. These discussions get quite emotional, which I guess is a good thing as it shows the passion for the subject on both sides of the spectrum. Personally I believe that most decision makers have developed a level of cynicism toward traditional KM, mostly I believe because [...]

By Aiden Choles|September 29th, 2009|Categories: Management|Tags: Dave Snowden, KM, knowledge management|0 Comments

Change blindness

This is fascinating! One of the first things I remember hearing Dave Snowden speak about is how people make decisions. According to cognitive science we only have a very small percentage of what's in our visual range in sharp focus at any given time. We see through a series of spot observations and fill in the rest based on past experience. This often leads us to physically not see things that don't fit our expectations or patterns. I remember when [...]

By Aiden Choles|September 16th, 2009|Categories: Cognitive Edge, Cognitive Edge, Cognitive science|Tags: change, cognitive, psychology science|0 Comments

Ethics Conference

Sonja and I are in Cape Town tomorrow for the Unashamedly Ethical conference on Friday and Saturday. Since the release of the King 3 report on corporate governance earlier this month, there is increased pressure for Board's and Directors to report on and manage the ethical performace of their companies. Managing ethics? The reality is that the realm of ethics is a profoundly complex problem, a problem that escapes direct management ... added to this complexity is the problem of human nature [...]

By Aiden Choles|September 16th, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: Complexity, ethics, Narrative|0 Comments

Guest blogging on Cognitive Edge

I will be guest blogging on www.cognitive-edge.com for the next two weeks, so feel free to follow my "musings" there. I'll be discussing some of our current and forthcoming opportunities here in South Africa. Remember also to catch Dave Snowden @ the CSIR on the 19th of August where he'll be talking about "Making KM strategic to your organisation".