Narrative

Ogilvy’s russian dolls

I came across this little anecdote in and article in the latest edition of Strategy + Business. It illustrates how savvy leaders know how to use metaphors and symbols to get their point across effectively and strengthen company culture. David Ogilvy is the founder ofOgilvy & Mather, one of the most successful advertising agencies in the world. "... it wasn’t just what David Ogilvy said that made his principles special; it was also how he said it. ... Ogilvy communicated his principles [...]

By Aiden Choles|April 30th, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: Culture, leadership, Narrative, Story|0 Comments

Our narrative approach/model

Over the last few months we've been refining the way we approach narrative in organisations and have found something that now works for us, and is pretty simple to understand. Head on over to our Narrative Model page to see the model in full details. Credit must be given to Shaun Callahan from Anecdote who originally developed a very similar model that we've tweaked.

By Aiden Choles|April 20th, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: anecdote, Narrative, narrative model|0 Comments

Self-indulgent descriptions

Here are some descriptions we often use when introducing ourselves and what The Narrative Lab does: Making sure you ask the right questions about your problem Why solve a problem the very same way it was created The common ground between complex problems and simple solutions Different approach, and yet strangely familiar Helping you gather the stories you really need to know about Harnessing the power of story-telling and story-gathering

By Aiden Choles|April 20th, 2009|Categories: Narrative, the narrativelab|Tags: descriptions, narrative lab, the narrative lab|0 Comments

Big and small “s” stories

One of the questions Sonja and I often get when introducing ourselves is this, "Why use the word narrative? We find the word "story" easier to understand." In response we've said that the word "narrative" has more gravitas to it and communicates that we're more than just story-tellers. However, of late we've begun to use a way of describing narrative that Anecdote use: the difference between big "S" story and small "s" story. Here's what I mean ... Big "S" stories are the stories we're accustomed [...]

By Aiden Choles|April 17th, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: anecdote, big s, Narrative, small s, stories, Story|0 Comments

The religious evangelism of mine safety – a new metaphor

In our recent research collaboration with Deloitte into the state of mine safety (available here) we exposed a metaphor that was prevalent in the industry: that of policing. That is, almost the entire industry is being governed by the dynamics associated with policing behaviour, risk, attitudes and impact. While attending a seminar today, where we presented the results of our recent study, Sonja and I uncovered another prevalent metaphor: that of religious evangelism. We noticed how almost every presentation or comment was [...]

By Aiden Choles|March 5th, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: evangelism, narrative nicolaas, policing, Religion|0 Comments

Unashamedly Ethical

One of the dominant stories we have in South African business is that of fraud and corruption. The corruption story pervades every aspect of our business dealings, relationships and value added (or not added) to clients. I'm intrigued as to how the strongholds that a dominant story like this begin to break. My background as a narrative therapist suggests that the breaking free of an unhelpful dominant story only begins to happen when ... one acknowledges the dominant story for what it [...]

By Aiden Choles|March 2nd, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: dominant, graham power, power construction, story ethics, unashamedly ethical|0 Comments

Setting up the story

I suspect this cartoon holds some deeper wisdom and insight than we'd initially assume. One of our frustrations here at The Narrative Lab is how the discipline of business has attempted to thwart our natural ability to tell stories, especially around the board room table. How did this happen? Well, it was one too many business executives attempting to "set up the story" by not letting the story tell itself and trying to spell things out for their staff ... [...]

By Aiden Choles|February 27th, 2009|Categories: Narrative|0 Comments

Narrative therapy basics

This image (from Dave's recent post on the Liverpool Slavery Museum) highlights the interplay between a dominant and alternative story, and how an alternative story can be freeing. What do I mean? Well, my background lies in narrative therapy - a new wave in the psychology domain that takes a narrative perspective on a persons problems and life. In essence, the way we speak about ourselves and our problems creates the reality we live in. If words are so important, then the way [...]

By Aiden Choles|February 4th, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: dominant, Narrative, our story, Story, subjugated, therapy|0 Comments

Mine safety – over-focus on compliance

The recent Presidential Mine Safety Audit has caused a ruckus on the wires for reporting that compliance with safety legislation in the South African mining industry is a mere 66%. We find this interesting in light of our just-released narrative research with Deloitte into the state of mine safety in the country. Our report (click here to download) highlighted the evident gap between the complex nature of the problems facing mine safety and the ordered solutions being utilized to address these problems. One [...]

By Aiden Choles|February 3rd, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: Complexity, compliance, deloitte, mines. narrative, research, safety|0 Comments

The conversation that’s happening, right now, in your organisation?

I've recently begun an experiment ... I've joined Twitter. Some have admonished me for being so late in joining the party, and others have responded with a quizzical look that says "is this the thing that geeks do?" A week into it and I have found it to be quite a natural extension to the status updates I do on Facebook, but with an edge. Twitter interests me because of the unstructured way in which people can broadcast thoughts, activities, links [...]

By Aiden Choles|February 3rd, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: conversation, Narrative, pulse, stories, twitter|0 Comments

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