Monthly Archives: July 2011

The issue of humanity is recieving a lot of our attention. On the back of our thought piece on humanity, we've initiated a mini narrative survey on the issue of humanity in the workplace. We've gathered a considerable number of experiences of dehumanisation in the workplace through stories in our previous narrative capture projects, none of our projects have been specifically focused on humanity itself. We're keen to get a sense of the level of humanity in organisations currently, so we've [...]

The entire Narrative Lab team, including a few others, has just arrived home after facilitating a metaphor elicitation process in Cape Town for a power utility company. It was a first time for us on a few counts. Firstly, it was the first time we were running large group facilitation techniques with 400 people in each session. Secondly, it was a first working with so many people in just 45 minutes (there were four sessions), and thirdly, it was the [...]

As a fresh Information & Knowledge Management graduate entering the world of narratives and complexity, my understanding of conversations, or rather conversational leadership, within organizations was within a knowledge management framework. This is where managers would implement and encourage a communication channel between employees, both in various levels to set a knowledge-sharing platform, and benefit from collaborative intelligence. I had never assessed the value of a conversation on its own, but rather communication as a whole. I never went further [...]

I love Jamie Oliver - he's by far my favorite celebrity chef.  Every since I first saw him stuff a leg of lamb, I knew he was my 'culinary muse'.  Over the last few years, he's been on a mission to change the eating habits of various communities, including schools in the UK and US. In 2009, he decided to tackle Huntington, a city that had received the dubious honour of being named the unhealthiest city in the United States [...]

During the research I was doing within the industry of knowledge management, I came across a privately held consulting company; The Narrative Lab, a company which through the use of narrative, surfaces and influences the mindsets, perceptions and belief systems that govern the patterns of behavior in a team and an organization. I got fascinated by their approach, explored more of what they do by going through the company profile. An interest aroused within me on the company and I [...]

The previous year, heading towards completion of my bachelors’ degree, did not only bring a certain levels of excitement, but it also triggered great concern on how I would ignite my career. Looking at the difficulty that thousands of new graduates face on getting their first experience and the overall unemployment rate within the country made me realize the intensity of a situation that lay ahead me. I kept on repeating the same question in my mind; “What is it [...]

Dear readers of the TNL blog You will notice shortly that we have a new blogger on our site. He is none other than David Sebe, our newest recruit. As part of David's induction and development plan we invited him to chronicle his experiences in joining TNL (not to flatter us, although that may be nice) and to share with our readers his thoughts and reflections on the ideas, processes, products and clients that he encounters. We are his first [...]

There is a growing awareness of how important conversations are within our organisations. Dialogue has always been key, but the new economy requires a new way of facilitating business conversations. When it comes to facing the adaptive challenges in our organisation, conversation is a very useful tool for leadership to engage with staff on addressing problems. A Conversation Journey is an intentional, facilitated approach that helps an organisation understand their existing conversation culture and assists in creating a culture that [...]

This morning I picked up on a tweet by Zahmoo (Anecdote's new story bank software) that pointed towards a post about the Periodic Table of Storytelling. I've spent a few mintues wading through it and I'm pretty impressed. TVtropes.org have done an exquisite job of plotting out the basic elements of stories, in both literary and film form. Besides the natural link to the work we do, I'm interested in this table because we have developed a workshop process based on Christopher Booker's [...]