“Telling tales”

by Stephen Denning

Group Members;
Mustafa
Asif Salam
Saleem
Farid
Momin
 Contents
• Introduction
• The power narrative
• A poorly told story
• Tales of success and failure
• A Collective Yawn
• catalogs
• Sparking action
• Communicating who you are?
• Transmitting value
• Fostering collaboration
• Taming the grapevine
• Leading people in to the future

• Contemporary issues
• The power narrative
• A poorly told story
Tales of Success and Failure

• Purpose of telling story determine its form

• Motivation →→ Positive Story

• Sharing Information →→ Negative Story

• People learn more from mistakes than from success

 A COLLECTIVE YAWN
• Negative vs Boring
• Xerox repair technicians
• Story telling and leadership
Storytelling Sparking action

catalog… o Connect the idea

o Avoid excessive details
o ‘’Just imagine’’ and ‘’what if’’.
 Communicating who you are
o Story that provides an engaging drama
o Revels some strengths and vulnerability from
your past
oInclude meaningful details
oResponses should be ‘’I didn’t know that about
him’’
Cont...
Transmitting values
 Story can be effective in establishing values in organization
 A minimalist story, it is simple yet evocative: for example, a parable
 It can be positive or negative in tone.
 Don’t tell a values story unless you visibly demonstrate at all times
that you can walk the talk: actions speak louder than words.
 Be self-aware.
Some topics on which to base values stories
 Something that makes you proud to work for your
organization.
 A time you faced and overcame some adversity, a
challenge.
 Someone you admire, perhaps a leader or teacher……
 Examples

A CULTURE WHERE KEY PEOPLE SAY OVER-RELIANCE ON TECHNOLOGY

ONE THING YET DO ANOTHER AND LACK OF INITIATIVE
• Fostering collaboration
• Developing a share perspective, one that
create a sense of community
• Having an open agenda with a plan of
channeling stories to immediate actions.
Taming the grapevine
• Use the grapevine to defuse the rumor, using a story to convince listeners
• This kind of story highlight the difference between rumor and reality
 Types of grapevine communication
Single Strand Chain
• passing of information through a line of persons

Gossip Chain
• one person seeks and tells the information to everyone
Cluster Chain
• a person tells the information to the selected persons who may in turn relay
(pass) the information to other selected persons

Probability Chain
• random process in which someone transmits the information to others in
accordance with the laws of probability
Leading people to the future
 A story can help take listeners form where they are now to where they
need to be, by making them comfortable with and image of the future
Contemporary issues
Leaders use story telling in organizations
Critical analysis
I. True story
II. Positive tone
III. Strange ways
IV. Listener wants
 Culture difference
 Generate understanding
 Better connection…..suitable events
 Better receptivity
• Research has shown that stories of organizational change that adopt a
single logic, a single voice? Such as stories told exclusively from the
perspective of a single leader or group? Are quickly opposed by counter
stories. It is virtually "impossible to sustain monological accounts of social
reality" (Bryant & Cox, 2004: 580; citing Oswick & Keenoy, 2001: 224).
• Storytelling research suggests that people engage in a dynamic
incremental process of refinement of prestories by incorporating new
events, trotting out old stories of successes and failures, and co-
constructing story plots in a manner that is strategic (Barry & Elmes, 1997;
• Research has consistently shown that story performances in organizations
rarely exhibit complete, coherent plots with a beginning, middle, and an
end. Stories get told tersely, in fragments (Boje, 1991; Czarniaw ska, 2004).
• Storytelling is a dynamic process that is distributed across many places.
Organizational stories tend to be performed simultaneously on many
stages. You cannot be everywhere at once; people's choice of storytelling
sites, and their order, determine the meaning experienced (Boje, 1995;
Czar niawska, 1997).
• 5. Official corporate stories tend to be contradicted by less flattering
counter stories told by internal and external stakeholders. Examples
include Disney (Boje, 1995,2000; Brannen, 2004; Van Maanen, 1991), Nike
and Reebok (Boje, 1999,2001; Landrum, 2000), Enron (Boje & Rosile, 2003;
Boje, Rosile, Durant, & Luhman, 2004), and McDonald's (Boje, Driver, & Cai,
2005; Boje & Rhodes, in press a,b).