Narrative

Mine safety – narrative research with Deloitte

Towards the end of 2008 we partnered with Deloitte Consulting on a research project aimed at the field of mine safety. We are painfully aware of how mine safety needs to improve, especially within the South African deep level mining context. Nicolaas Herholdt approached us to partner with him in developing a Point of View that uncovers new and important insights into mine safety that might assist in addressing the way in which safety statistics have plateaued. The reality is that despite all the [...]

By Aiden Choles|February 2nd, 2009|Categories: Narrative|Tags: Cynefin, deloitte, mine safety, mines, narrative research, nicolaas herholdt, rob hooper, sense making, the narrative lab|0 Comments

Live blogging: Justin Cohen

Sonja and are sitting at the Sandton Southern Sun listening to Justin Cohenpresent his preso on storytelling: What's Your Story? I met Justin in myTomorrowToday days and admired his blatant confidence in front of an audience. He is now turning his speaking prowess to punting the power of stories in the public sphere. We're sitting here 'cos we're fascinated by the range of applications of story. From traditional storytelling to business narrative, we see a spectrum of applications and uses of story [...]

By Aiden Choles|November 14th, 2008|Categories: Narrative|Tags: justin cohen, Narrative, narrative spectrum, Story, storytelling|0 Comments

Aggregators as a measure of pulse

Broadly speaking, the heart of our business is about the gathering of stories (many stories) within organisations so that decision makers can better understand their organisation or problem they are facing. In a sense, we're story-aggregators. Online content aggregators like Afrigator do a great job of funneling African generated web content into one easy-to-use place - that's a semi-official description. But what I think aggregators like Afrigator do, is to funnel stories, and fragments of stories. The challenge with dealing with this many stories [...]

By Aiden Choles|November 12th, 2008|Categories: Narrative|Tags: afrigator, aggregators, Narrative, pulse, stories|0 Comments

Storymentary

I was sitting on the plane back from Australia a little while back and in searching through the in-flight entertainment, a documentary caught my eye: Roger Federer, with the tagline, "Follow the Great Swiss champion from racket-throwing tennis brat to the perfectly composed world number one". With excitement, I hoped this documentary would uncover some of the reasons why Federer shifted in his temperament so significantly. Sadly, it was just another documentary - retracing the history of his winnings, with nice interviews [...]

By Aiden Choles|October 29th, 2008|Categories: Narrative|Tags: documentary, Narrative, roger federer, storymentary|0 Comments

Butch and Sundance

In a recent Time magazine,Robert Redford reflects on his friendship with the late Paul Newman. He describes how they worked together and became friends in the tough movie industry. The pieceends with the following story, which I think perfectly illustrates how a story can convey so much more than facts. It gives us insight into the friendship and even the character of the two men, probably aspects that they would not be able to articulate when asked directly. "We played lots of pranks on [...]

By Aiden Choles|October 13th, 2008|Categories: Narrative|Tags: Narrative, Story, values|0 Comments

Stories more compelling than facts

A futurist named Marvin J. Cetron who apparently predicted 9/11 has just released the outcomes of a study that Cetron’s Forecasting International carried out for the Pentagon. This report outlnes several possible prime US terrorism targets and it makes for interesting reading. The report outlines 10 potential scenarios. What makes them really compeling (and chilling) is the narrative form in which they are written. It proves what we have always advocated: using story or narrative is much more compelling and convincing than using [...]

By Aiden Choles|September 28th, 2008|Categories: Communication, Narrative|Tags: Communication, Narrative, story terror|0 Comments

Stories, sport and performance

I came across a great little anecdote while doing some research for a sports related project Sonja and I are working on - it will hopefully translate into a television series next year, but more of that once we're actually allowed to talk about it :) Here's the anecdote: At the 150th birthday celebration of Grey College,Ryk Neethling gave an address in which he attributed his Olympic success to his education and upbringing at Grey. He recounted an experience he had with [...]

By Aiden Choles|September 25th, 2008|Categories: Narrative|Tags: grey college, harness, Narrative, performance, ryk neethling, sport stories|0 Comments

The Wisdom and Skills Challenge – a conference

We'll be presenting on Wisdom Continuity at the upcoming Refirement Conference on 11th June. Along with Lynda from the Refirement Network, we've been developing a narrative-based approach at capturing and transferring that special, unique Wisdom that Baby Boomers have. This conference is a must if you experiencing a loss of information and wisdom as people exit your company. DATE: 11th June PLACE: Bryanston Country Club TIME: 08h30 to 12h00 PRICE: R250 per person The brochure is also attached below. Attachment Size [...]

By Aiden Choles|May 15th, 2008|Categories: Narrative|Tags: narrative approach, refirement network, wisdom, wisdom continuity|0 Comments

The importance of context

In reading a book by Eugene Peterson, I came across this paragraph: "Apart from the before the now has little meaning. The now is only a thin slice of who I am; isolated from the rich deposits of before, it cannot be understood. ... The before is the root system of the visible now" While this is most certainly true for individuals, we also know this to be true for organisations. It once again re-iterates the importance of context when dealing with any kind of change in large organisations. Often times, [...]

By Aiden Choles|May 12th, 2008|Categories: Narrative|Tags: complexity context culture, narrative organisation, Story|0 Comments

Dark matter in Organisations

A little gem from Dave on Day 1 of the Cognitive Edge Accreditation course we're hosting in Pretoria: The Dark Matter Theory asserts that there is much matter in space that we cannot see, but we know it exists because it exerts gravitational effects on visible matter. When it comes to organisations, and the complex way in which they operate, the dark matter theory can be applied i.e. there are things/forces that happen in organisations that we cannot see, but we know they occur because they [...]

By Aiden Choles|March 3rd, 2008|Categories: Narrative|Tags: accreditation, archetypes, Cognitive Edge, Complexity, dark matter, enquiry organisations, theory narrative|0 Comments

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