Blog Title: aiden choles | the narrative pulse

Mbeki's quiet diplomacy may have been right

As I write this, Zimbabwe is on the verge of a political miracle. All signs are that Mugabe will be democraticaly ousted as president after 28 years in power. Thabo Mbeki, as a neighbouring president who could actually do somehting about the regime, has recieved much criticism for his "quiet" approach to Mugabe. I now wonder if Mbeki may actually have been right?

In reading his biography (A Dream Deferred), Mark Gevisser outlines again and again how Mbeki is ardently in favour of conversation being the primary force of change, not militant force. In particular, Mbeki was sidelined through the early 90s for this approach as a negotiated settlement was being established between the apartheid governmnet and the ANC. It turns out that through almost every engagement Mbeki was involved in, talking proved to be the right solution and resulted in the desired outcome.

Of late, Mbeki has intimated that a change is coming in Zimbabwe. When I consider what a miracle it will be for a change of power to occur peacefuly and democrticaly, I wonder what the alternative of forcing a regime change in Zimbabwe would have resulted in. No doubt, if this was Mbeki's approach, we'd be at war. Now, thanks to quiet diplomacy, we stand on the verge of a democratic miracle.

However, the events bound to unfold over the next few days may prove me wrong.

Political polygamy

Helen Zille's faction/embittered approach to politics normally grinds my turkey, but a paragraph in her most recent weekly newsletter stood out as being congruent with my stance on Zuma's ascension to power:

Zuma was not elected ANC leader because he showed any of these qualities. He was elected because a powerful populist/leftist lobby in the party saw in Zuma their opportunity to get rid of Mbeki’s economic centrism and his tendency to centralise power. In fact, the ANC populists elected Zuma precisely because of his lack of leadership. They believe this will enable them to manipulate him. What they do not understand is that an easily manipulated leader is open to all offers, and often sold to the highest bidder. Zuma’s honeymoon with his senior political brides, COSATU and the SACP, is already running into trouble.

Vote for Narrative Lab

Over the last few months you might have noticed how I'm writing fewer business posts on this blog. That's because my business has moved from being solo-preneur Aiden Choles to being a partner in The Narrative Lab. Anyway, we're a finalist in the SA Blog Awards 2008.

You can vote for us here.

punting

I couldn't give a stuff who John McCain is nor what he stands for in redeeming the USA ... I'm just punting for the potential 1st woman or 1st black man ever to take office in the White House.

Online reputation

You know your online reputation is in a mess when a blog entry I've written about you appears on the highest ranked Google search results for your name. You may be thankful that this applies to only one person on the face of the planet - eTV's infamous Debora Patta.

I discovered this tonight as I recieved yet another comment from an adoring Debora fan who somehow thinks this site, and a posting I wrote about her (read it here), is really her personal site and thus a dumping ground for all the bad pubilicity she so easily attracts.

Now look, of late I am happy to indulge in my mean side, and I will publish the comments willingly. Although I suspect that it may also stem from some bitterness at being snubbed by the woman when I offered to help make her new 24-hour news channel a narrative-based news star!

Leadership on the knife edge

I have a growing sense that as a nation, South Africa is heading towards a knife edge. In just a few months Zuma goes to trail (in which the prosecutors are calling over 200 witnesses). A few months thereafter, we go to the polls to vote for a new president (during which the president-elect will still be standing trial for corruption). As recipes go, this does not bode well for a peaceful transition between power regimes.

Now, lest we forget, we were on a knife-edge of considerable proportions about 14 years ago. "On the brink of civil war" might be a closer proximation of the state of the nation in 1994. The avergae South African, when asked about 1994 will say two things: 1) it was a miracle that we had a peaceful transition into democracy, and that 2) we had an amazing person at the helm (Mandela) to lead us through the transition.

If we had to draw the two knife-edges into parallel, and ask who will be the leader who will draw our nation away from the knife-edge in the months to come? At this point in time we have Mbeki and Zuma in a position to do this. Do I foresee either of them providing the moral fibre and direction to our country needed to see us through the next year? Unfortunately not. Neither of them have the moral fibre and resounding character to assure a nation that Mandela possesses so naturally.

The Brrr Effect

My wife and I were sitting at he cricket the other day when we heard a resounding "Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" ring out across the crowd. It was then that I knew the most recent Coke advertising campaign had permeated social culture as the cold drink vendor advertised his product (Coke) to the crowd and the crowd responded with appreciative Brrrrrrr's in return.

What happens to your Facebook account when you die?

An old school mate, Symone, passed away suddenly yesterday. I would not have known about her death had it not been for Facebook and other friends writing about the death in their status updates. In fact, if it were not for Facebook I would not have had any contact with this old school mate as we lost contact after we matriculated.

I've always wondered what happens to your account on Facebook, or any other Web 2.0 site for that matter, when you die? The beauty of Web 2.0 (as I understand the phenomenon) is that it allows you to have a personal presence on the web - a virtual "second life" if you like, that is a real-time life-like representation of your state of being, moods, actions and thoughts. It pretty much mirrors your real life (if you're as obsessed with it as I am:)). Unlike your life though, your web presence does not dissapear like your last breath does.

This hit home today, barely 24 hours after Symone's death, when I noticed that she had a stauts update. It reads ...

Symone Van Der Walt passed away suddenly on 22/01/08. Her grieving family invite you to a memorial service on Saturday 26/01/08 at 10am. Cnr Trichardt & Kingfisher Rd, Boksburg.

It freaked me out to see an update from her. Clearly it was written by someone else who got access to her account, but the freaky thing is that the message comes from her real-time, life-like web presence. Well, it may not freak you out, but it gives me the hibby-jeebies! There's a sense in me (and this sounds very wierd) hat there needs to be a funeral for her online presence as well. Or perhaps, her FB account could carry on existing as a presence of rememberance for friends and family?

Dave sings ...

Mike thankfully recorded Dave's song yesterday morning with his cell phone ...

Meeting Dave Matthews

Along with some mates, I had the great honour of meeting my long time musical hero Dave Matthews. He's here in South Africa promoting the film his production company has put out, Joshua. Interviewed on Jacaranda FM this morning, I was lucky enough (along with Sam, Mike, Pete, Celeste and Justin) to be included in the studio audience.

Initially we were only going to be allowed to watch from outside the studio, but at the last minute got ushered into the studio along with invited guests.

There was a collective sound of breaths being lost as he entered the room (Celeste even made a pretty funny snortling sound). Besides just being in the same room as the maestro, he serenaded us with an impromptu performance of Grave Digger, signed some of our CDs and even signed my guitar strap.

*he faints*

More photo's here.

Prediction: Australian embassy overflow

Now that Jacob Zuma has become the ANC President, I predict that as of tomorrow morning there'll be a renewed intake of immigration applications at the Australian embassy from a whole bunch of disgruntled white South Africans.

In the run up to today's election outcome it has been a regular occurrence for white South Africans, that I've come across, to be overheard asking, "What will our plans be if Zuma becomes President (of the country)?"

While there is reason to be concerned regarding the cloud hanging over Zuma's head i.e. potential pending corruption charges, I'll be disappointed if we as whites do respond in the way I have satirized.

We must remember that the result is a democratic one, and the people have chosen to not let Mbeki run for a 3rd term. 3rd terms are topical, and tend to signify critical turning points on our continent e.g. we knew Zimbabwe was heading south when Mugabe entered a 3rd term as president.

For now, Mbeki is still the country's president until 2009 - let's not be too hasty in filling in our immigrations applications.

If I were to make another prediction, it will be this: the NPA will charge Zuma again. This could potentially mean that the ANC Deputy President may be called upon to take up the country's Presidency. Who might that be? Kgalema Motlanthe.

Why leave the country now when there are such interesting times ahead?

The pulse subsides ...

Have a good festive season. The Narrative Pulse will be subsiding to a little more than a murmur over the next few weeks.

Bring on 2008!

A little rant before the year is out

So we live in Africa ... and we have electricity issues. Load shedding and the impact thereof is such a hot news item at the moment as Eskom tries to keep the electricity grid stable. The traffic lights are out, it takes longer to get home, we're stressed, meetings go bad as the stress spills over and we can't open our electric gates and garages. Yet, in the midst of numerous messages from Eskom to conserve electricity to avoid more load shedding we seem to have a proliferation of the following:

Don't get me wrong ... it's all quite festive and pretty (as my wife tells me), but rather irresponsible.

on the history of blogging

Having just met Dion Forster face-to-face for the first time today, and having discussed the nature of his prolific blogging style, I like the image that Gino posted about the evolution of blogging. Very apt considering how I've had to learn how to focus my oline writing efforts.

Narrative Pulse: The lesser of two evils?

While I've never really taken an active interest in politics I have nevertheless been keenly aware of the shifts in the political landscape of South Africa and how they affect the narrative pulse of our nation. I've gathered this information and formed the perspectives I have based on some fairly superficial gleanings from the media reporting on political events.

In particular, I've had some strong emotional responses of late as I've been considering the shifts leading up to this weekends ANC National Conference and the recent branch nominations for the party's president. Unsurprisingly, Jacob Zuma has wrapped up the nominations process, and I've begun to wonder to myself how he has gathered so much support when one considers the saga's he's been invovled in (generally corrupt relationship with Schabir Shaik and a pragmatic approach to preventing the contraction of HIV)? Surely, rational people would not nominate a fellow with such a cloud hanging over his head? Unless there is something about the bloke that I've missed? And then it hit me! The only information I have of JZ has come from what the media has reported about him ... not wise when formulating an opinion.

And so, I logged onto Kalahari.net and bought two books that have been launched recently and that I felt would bolster my lack of knowledge of the ANC and of the leadership race between Zuma and Mbeki. The books are Andrew Feinstein's After the Party and Mark Gevisser's Thabo Mbeki: A Dream Deferred. Having just finished Feinstein, and just started Gevisser, I am growing increasingly worried about this Sunday's voting outcome.

Feinstein has written a deeply personal narrative on his experiences within the ANC, and more specifically as a role player in the investigations into the arms deal. While it is a personal story, and by no means an agreed upon, objective version of the events, one must still consider deeply his perspective. It is a perspective and experience of being shunned and sidelined for investigating the alleged corruption into the arms deal. With thriller novel like twists one begins to get a view of the ANC leadership as being covert, under-handed and deeply paranoid about the inner workings of the deal. Mbeki comes across as autocratic, paranoid and most disturbing of all, Machiavellian.

This is really sad considering the government and party that Mandela lead in the 1995 to 1999 period ... characterised by robust debate, not by decisions made in hushed whispers behind closed doors in smoke-filled rooms. Having been very pro-Mbeki on this website and in conversation, I've begun to wonder if there's a deeper side to the President that we should really be worried about?

Could Feinstein's perspective on Mbeki be the reason why Zuma has garnered such support: that in the absence of another forerunning candidate, even Zuma represents a better option that re-electing Mbeki?

I'm not sure of the answer yet, and that is why I'm moving onto Gevisser's biography of Mbeki pretty quickly.

Pulling all your chicks together

Walking into my favourite fast food joint, Nando's, on Monday I noticed a poster on the door that said something to the effect of, "Please take note that we'll be closed on 13th November 2007." Hardly noticing it, I thought to myself that they'll probably be having a staff training day, or at the very worst some form of refurbishment. How wrong I was!

It turns out that every Nando's store in the country was closed for the day - the whole day! Not for some training, nor for some refurbishments, but for a company wide conference ... for every single Nando's employee. Every one of them - hence, no store could be open. Fortunately, I did not require my regular fix of a Burger Meal, so I was not inconvenienced. But should I have been in need of a burger how pleased I would have been to know that all 6,000 Nando's staff were on a conference celebrating their 20 year birthday!

And so, sitting in a meeting with a client today, discussing some of the outputs from a session with staff where there was a significant thread regarding how under-valued they feel, the client asked, "How do we communicate that our people matter to us?" My answer: learn a lesson from Nando's!

Typically the barrier to having ALL your staff on conference is a bottom line barrier ... how can we stand to lose a full-days operating profits? Who will answer the phones? How can we possibly inconvenience clients like that?

BUT, think about the message it communicates to your staff ... that they are more important than a days takings at the till. Awesome.

I can tell you that they'll be making up that loss from customers like me who will support Nando's even more now that I know how much they value the blokes who put my burger's together.

The narrative pulse of culture

Here's my argument: we need to move from methods of measuring organisation culture that are staitc, towards methods that allow for dynamic assessment. This argument comes out of experiences where static approaches have failed to provide relevant information during the life-cycle of a change management project.

When embarking on an organisatinal intervention project, one can normally anticipate the inclusion of a "discovery" phase as the first of the project. This is where an "as-is" assessment/audit of the context in which the intervention needs to take place is captured. While this important step is often dealt with as a mere step in the process, and not as a key indicator of the context and how that context may inhibit or support the broader project, I am finding a more perturbing assumption about the discovery phase made by project sponsors, managers and many facilitators.

The (unsaid) assumption is that the audit is a cross-sectional perspective of the cultural context at a specific point in time, with outputs and information that are static and applicable throughout the life of the project.

At the very least, a culture audit is a perspective on an organisation within the boundaries of the context in which it was captured. With the above assumption, we (and I do refer to all of us here) are tempted to make inferences about the organisation's culture in perpetuity of the life of the project. This assumption leaves little room for the way in which the culture may shift at different times in the project.

Now, it is impractical to run culture audits continuously throughout a project to deal with this problem, but at the very least we need to move from a Lewinian model of culture audit where we take a snap-shot of a culture and draw inferences from that moving forward. Instead we need to begin to find methods that allow us to capture dynamically the living culture of an organisation.

It is in this realm that capturing narratives within an organisation, and being able to manage them effectively, becomes key to have as close to a real-time picture of organisational culture as possbiel. This very point is a value proposition we use within The Narrative Lab to sell Narrative-based Exit Interviews.

If one is able to have a fairly continuous stream of narrative material captured, indexed, stored and searchable we are one step closer to being able to track the impact of a project in real-time, not jus at the end of the project. The Sensemaker suite of software is a vital tool in this regard that allows the capture, indexing, storage and searching of massive amounts of narrative material. Combined with Narrative-based Exit Interviews, Sensemaker will provide a very relevant way of reading the pulse of your organisations culture.

Patriotism

Thanks to Rob Hooper for the dash of artistic patriotism as Saturday's Rugby World Cup looms ...

15 thriller masters, 1 masterful thriller.

In one of our regular lunch meetings Rich...! referred me to an audiobook he'd just started to listen to, The Chopin Manuscript. This is not your run-of-the-mill thriller, but rather a book written by 15 different authors. Jeffery Deaver wrote the first chapter, then handed it off to another author who had to take the narrative platform and add his own input to it. And so the same process applied through to the end of the book. 15 thriller masters, 1 masterful thriller.

Released in September, there are currently 7 chapters out with a few chapter being released every week. Click on the image below to find out more ...

Some of my initial thoughts (having only listened to Chapters 1 & 2):

Deaver lays down a fairly intricate plot regarding the exitence of an orginal manuscript by Chopin. Filled with the customary murders and mysterious characters, Deaver includes numeorus flashbacks in time. This is quite daunting in audibook format as one struggles to remember character names (you can't simply page back and remember the name). Chapter 2, written by David Hewson, takes a more focussed approach with fewer character introductions and an exquisitely weaved scene.

Can;t wait to get through the rest of the chapters ...

Anti-helium

This has absolutely nothing to do with what I normally write about, but is just really cool and way worth the laugh.

Thanks for the heads up Dave.

The Narrative Lab

Over the last few months a new focus has emerged for me in my mission to work with narrative in organisations. It is the culmination of discussions and dreaming with Sonja and Raymond and has resulted in the formation of The Narrative Lab - a company focussed on using narrative techniques in multiple contexts to help organisations make sense of the problems they face.

It is my pleasure to introduce the company to you - you'll no doubt here more about it.

The Narrative Fallacy

One of the anecdotes I'll tell in support of using narrative techniques within the organisational culture realm is this one, gathered from an anecdote circle in the banking sector:

A client relationship manager needed to meet face-to-face with a client regarding a query on his account. This client had a reputation in the business for being grumpy, insolent and very volatile. Knowing this, she asked her manager to accompany her into the meeting ... for backup. During the course of the meeting, for some reason, the client got so angry that he stood up and lifted his arm to hit the employee. Fortunately, her manager was quick enough to intercept his strike and held his arm at bay. The CEO of the business heard about this incident and invoked a restraining order against the client - he could remain a client of the bank, but he was never to set foot again on the premesis.

Now, you draw a parallel between this story and the often-found statement on a company's Our Values poster: We care for our staff. Which one says more? The statement, or the story? Which one provides context for the value? The statement, or the story? Pretty clear, isn't it?

And so, when punting the use of narrative in organisations I'll often say how narratives are high in context ... thus providing a depth of information that is relevant and specific. I think it's a pretty good argument for how useful narratives are.

But then, Barrie has recently refered me to a book that takes a dialiectical stance on the usefulness of narrative - a stance that counters the usefulness of narrative and purports that narrative has a "compression" effect that, due to our intellectual make-up, allows us to focus too much on the specifics and lose sight of the alternatives open for consideration. The books is Nassim Nicholas Taleb's bestseller The Black Swan.

A Black Swan is an event with three attributes:

1. It is an outlier, beyond the realm of regular expectations,
2. It carries a massive impact, and
3. We concoct explanations for its occurence after the fact, mkaing it explainable and predicatable.

Taleb's argument is that we are hardwired for the specific i.e. we have a blindness with regards to to randomness, and it is therin the randomness that lies the biggest impact. He lists some examples of Black Swans (that people did not forecast): Google's success, the proliferation of the internet, the 9-11 attacks, the 1987 stock dropout and a really nice one: The Marginot Line.

And so, Taleb's problem with narrative is how it helps us focus on specifics through the context they provide, thus rendering us blind to the alternatives that might be embodies within the narrative. Interestingly, his book is punctuated with stories - a ploy, he writes, of fighting fire with fire!

Having just started reading the book, I only have a 1st Principles grasp on his argument and look forward to seeing his argument unfold. But at this stage, I'm not convinced his argument warrants a de facto rejection of narrative (afterall, why would I do that - it would mean relinquishing how I earn ym money!), but perhaps rather an acute awareness of how "limiting" narratives can be in generating greater depths of knowledge.

Image courtesy of Gordon McKinlay

Narrative-based exit interviews

Hands up those who have gone through a really solid exit interview process when leaving a company. Just what I thought ... very few of us have experienced a thorough, meaningful exit interview. Instead, many exit interviews are a mere "tick the box in the personnel file" formality rather than an opportunity to gain a rich perspective based on the anecdotes employees have to tell about the organisation.

I need to be careful not to alienate the HR practitioners reading this post - many of them will pride themselves in completing good exit interviews. I have seen an opportunity, based on an oft-found lackluster approach, to use narrative in the context of exit interviews.

By incorporating the narrative elements of displacement and resonance, narrative-based exit interviews would allow an opportunity for employees to share experiences that have resulted in their departure without necessarily implicating the parties concerned and for employees to highlight patterns within the organisation's culture by telling stories of experiences that date back prior to their departure.

Gathering anecdotes about the organisation in this way will also elicit information that is pervasive and characteristic of broader patterns within the organisation. This cultural information would then be of great value to leaders, so much more than the information coming out of traditional approaches that typically report on reasons for a departure.

To respond to the implicit political dynamics of having an HR representative doing the interview, one might outsource the process to narrative facilitators. In this way, employees may feel more secure and the process becomes less draining on HR departments that are often stretched in terms of people capacity. There are a others opportunities associated with a narrative-based approach:

- to construct a narrative database where anecdotes from interviews conducted organisation-wide can be stored and utilised by software such as Sensemaker for serendipitous search, horizon scanning within the culture, attractors and barriers.
- to move away from the "script" that employees often give in response to the interrogation style questions usually posed in the process.

In general though, the opportunity is to shift the mindset around exit interviews from being reporting on reasons for exits towards a strategic source of information for leaders that communicates the pulse of the organisational culture in a relatively low-cost, efficient manner.

Hannah's Rules

I facilitated a workshop recently that used the issue of Climate Change as an example of how to create invitations for change within teams, organisations and communities. We watched Al Gore's acclaimed An Inconvenient Truth as a way of looking at how to go about creating an invitation for change. After the viewing, the group seemed to have some mixed reactions to the issue of climate change. I decided to share a story that Graeme tells about his daughter, Hannah.

Driving one day to school, they got caught up behind a truck that, when it accelerated, it let out a huge plume of black diesel smoke. As it engulfed the car, Hannah exclaimed, "Yuck!" (she about 6 years old). She then asked her dad to pull up alongside the truck to see which company it belonged to. They did so, and Hannah duly told Graeme that their family must not buy the company's product ... "they don't play fair." And so, the family now has a list of abut 10 companies they boycott because they don't play it fair with the environment.

This little anecdote seemed to shift something in the group. The proverbial lights went on. They had just watched a powerful documentary on the subject, but weren't entirely convinced of what they could do as individuals to make a change. Until they heard the story, they had very little idea of what to do.

Again, never underestimate what a little story can do. Graeme now uses the story in a presentation, Hannah's Rules, when speaking of climate change and how the Millennial Generation are "getting it".

Photo courtesy of Jeff Kubina

Narrative in the Leadership Context

If there was a space in which narrative is used that both Left and Right-Wing practitioners of narrative techniques come together in a face-off, it is the Leadership context. It is also in this space that the most misrepresentation and misunderstanding of narrative techniques (and their purposes) has taken place. From my perspective, I have seen three uses of narrative techniques for Leaders:

1. Storytelling: one can lead by using stories to effect change. The argument in this application of narrative is that Storytelling is a core skill that leaders need to master in order to lead the organisation towards strategic objectives. Because stories engage on an emotional level, leaders who master the art of choosing and delivering the right story for a specific purpose can move staff in a more effective manner towards achieving goals. One of the best practitioners in this space is Steve Denning, well renowned for his books The Leaders Guide to Storytelling. This application of narrative has also received its fair share of criticism form practitioners on the other polar end of the narrative continuum for using narrative in manipulative ways.
2. Organisation Narrative Mapping (ONM): knowing the organisation's story as a diagnostic of organisational culture. Someone once wrote that the leadership imperitive is to "know the organisation". In using narrative in thsi context, the maxim is taken one step further: a leader should know the organisations story. Used in this context, varying amounts of stories, told by a cross-section of employees, are gathered and analysed for emerging themes. These themes are then signifiers of the organisational culture and position leaders well in terms of making decisions relatign to the culture. Experienced practitioners in this space are TomorrowToday.
3. Navigating complexity: using narrative as a technique to understand the context in which leaders operate. A significant voice in this space is Dave Snowden who'll be publishing a HBR article on the subject in November. To quote from him:
   • In the complex environment of the current business world, leaders often will be called upon to act against their instincts. They will need to know when to share power and when to wield it alone, when to look to the wisdom of the group and when to take their own counsel. A deep understanding of context, the ability to embrace complexity and paradox, and a willingness to flexibly change leadership style will be required for leaders who want to make things happen in a time of increasing uncertainty.
   Image courtesy of Raven Photography

Dead birds & Complexity

In the days before Richard Dawkins gained his Delusion(al) fame, he put forward a very useful metaphor for understanding complexity:

A dead parrot thrown up into the air obeys the laws of physics, forms a perfect parabola, and then falls back to earth. A live one disappears over the fence; its component parts working together to maintain their collective entity against the force of gravity.

This helps explain why, as managers, our employees/customers/suppliers don't "fall back to earth" like we'd like them to. We are dealing with levels of complexity in human systems that defy prediction and patterns of behaviour that defy causal links.

Photo courtesy of i say yes

I'll let you in on ...

... a little dream I have: to one day be a Talk Show radio host. If you can stop your eyes from rolling, and put aside that "Here we go, another media-mogul wannabee!" thought, let me self-indulge for a little.

You see, a few years back I decided that I wanted to facilitate conversations for a living. The pinnacle of that goal is the opportunity to facilitate conversations on a national scale. Getting small groups to talk meaningfully is great (and exceptionally rewarding), but to be able to facilitate national conversations where one gets to grip with the narrative pulse of a nation and a truly diverse range of discourse is one of my ambitions.

This dream had a little but of confirmation today as David O'Sullivan graciously let me be a fly on the wall of his Drive Time show on 702 Talk Radio this afternoon. Thanks David ... it's a pity we don't hear more of your off-air quips.

Photo courtesy of Cordan

Narrative in the Communications Context

If there was a professional field that would understand the power of stories and use them effectively, it would be the Communications Field. Alas, this is not the case. As an off-shoot of my post on Narrative in the Marketing Context, using narrative in the communications field takes its rationale from the argument that to capture a readers/listeners attention, one needs to use stories. This rationale is applied in various communications contexts:

• Speech writing
• Newsletters
• Websites
• Brochures
• Press Releases

A brief look over some examples of the communication outputs listed above will reveal that the field is more "fact reporting" driven than "storytelling" infused. Case in point: I was an audience member at an event where Cynthia Carroll (the newly appointed Anglo American plc CE) presented the opening address. I was eager to hear her speak ... she must be a pretty amazing woman after all.

She stood up and moved behind the podium. Shuffling her notes, she began ... by reading word-for-word the speech in front of her. It was clearly a piece not written by herself. She was bland and boring as she simply narrated the words in front of her. That was until she realised she was putting the audience to sleep, folded the notes and promptly stepped aside from the podium and began to proverbially speak from her heart - a personal narrative relevant to the event. The mood in the room picked up tangibly and she had the audience eating from her hand.

I wish that the room was full of communications professionals so that they could witness the power of a narrative in a speech. The same applies to written communications: press releases need to be infused with stories, not just facts. This change will aid reporters who need to enliven the bland facts from a press release and turn them into magic for a publication that has a discerning reading audience. Employees will find company newsletters a whole lot more engaging if they encounted just an ounce more storytelling rather than politiking. Consumers will visit your websites and engage with you more if you show a personal side through using stories.

It's really not that difficult ... it is a natural ability we have after all.

Narrative: Getting more than you bargained for

Original post published on Cognitive Edge Guest Blog.

I sometimes wonder if business leaders know what they’re missing out on by not embracing narrative techniques within their businesses. I remember facilitating an Anecdote Circle that drove this point home for me (which also caught the business by surprise a little). It was the first time this business had engaged in a narrative process when dealing with a problem. The issue at hand was a particularly bad run of resignations that had gutted the business of talented individuals during the course of a 12 month period.

When asked how I would approach the problem, I suggested that a narrative enquiry, in the form of an Anecdote Circle, be used to elicit narratives on the problem.

These narratives would be used to explore the nature of the problem and to expose emergent solutions. The answer caught them off-guard a little. I suspect they were anticipating that I’d suggest a unique blend of tried-and-tested retention initiatives as their solution (just like a competitor who was also punting for the work had suggested).

And so, in running the Anecdote Circle, I used one question to elicit the narratives: What are the significant experiences you have had as you either entered, or exited, this organization? (The “exited” part gave the participants space and freedom to share anecdotes that weren’t necessarily theirs). As the anecdotes began to surface, I had a sneaking suspicion that we were hearing about more than just retention in the organization. This was confirmed by the group when we reviewed the anecdotes for emergent themes.

“These stories tell us more about who we are as a company than they do about retention!” said an Exco-member who had participated in the session. It was then that I realized that an anecdote, shared in relation to a specific question, will embody and communicate a deeper characteristic of the organization. I kind of knew this on an intellectual level, that narratives carry with them complex levels of information, but now had confirmation from a client as well!

After one Anecdote Circle we had more than enough information regarding the nature of the retention problem as well as a heap of information regarding the organizational culture in general. All in one Anecdote Circle! Now I’ll grant that this is in part because of the sample of employees we had in the session (representative from all the business units). But consider the cost implications for a business who wants to gather organizational culture information in a time and budget conscious manner! Not only do narrative techniques gather more than one would expect, they gather all of this in a very short amount of time.

There are no doubt some advanced narrative practitioners reading this and muttering to themselves, “But we know this already Aiden?” Sure, but the reality is that in many parts of the world (South Africa being one) such techniques need fairly extensive and in-depth sales processes to convince business leaders to engage with them. My experience above captures some nice selling points for practitioners aiming to sell narrative projects (both internally and into clients).

Narrative in the Marketing context

Research has shown that we make sense of our world through the use of narrative processing. Psychologically we process what happens in our world in sequential narrative segments – these structured sequences of imagery are the most natural way we know to describe and ascribe meaning to that which gets our attention.

Perhaps the key then to capturing attention lies in the extent to which our message or brand connects with a person’s understanding of themselves – their own narrative. In this age of abundance the key to capturing people’s attention and in engaging them with your brand, one needs to understand the role of narrative and how the role of narrative marketing creates self-brand connections.

The essence of the aptitude of story is: context enriched by emotion. Stories are high in concept, touch and context – it is this mixture that separates stories from all other forms of communication and it this very characteristic that helps someone identify and find meaning in a brand.

A significant driver in creating brand loyalty are self-brand connections (SBCs). They are the key to capturing the audience's attention in a world saturated with markeitng messages. The strength of this connection is facilitated through the degree to which a person can integrate a brand into their self concept. Recent studies show that SBCs are created if a person is able to identify the story behind a brand and identify a similar narrative within their self-concept. This explores how humans process information in narrative chunks and how these narratives are assimilated in SBCs.

In practice, narrative can also be used in the marketing space as a means of strategising around the brand.

The first stages in establishing a brand (or even re-evaluating in annually) involve assessing the brand strategically. Doing this in a narrative manners means that marketers come to construct the brands story from inception to current day situation. Understanding the brand in this way opens strategic opportunites for the way one wishes the brand's story to pan out.