Engaging Tales in the Workplace

Organization, People, Knowledge, and Technology for Learning

OLIVIER SERRAT

Principal Knowledge Sharing and Services Specialist Knowledge Sharing and Services Center Regional and Sustainable Development Department Asian Development Bank

THE WHY Storytelling in the workplace is the use of stories or narratives OF BUSINESS as a communication tool to value, share, and capitalize NARRATIVE on the knowledge of individuals.

STORYTELLING • Enables articulation of emotional aspects and facts, and allows expression of tacit knowledge • Helps celebrate accomplishments to achieve a heightened sense of personal identity and self-continuity • Increases the potential for meaningful knowledge sharing • Augments the likelihood that learning will take place and be passed on

THE HOW STORYTELLING OF BUSINESS • Makes abstract concepts meaningful NARRATIVE • Helps connect people and ideas • • • • • • • •

Inspires imagination and motivates action Allows different perspectives to emerge Creates sense, coherence, and meaning Develops valuable descriptions of situations in which knowledge is applied and solutions are found Examines organizational values and culture Communicates complex messages simply Operates effectively in networks Inspires change

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THE WHEN STORYTELLING IS USED TO OF BUSINESS • Identify and exchange learning episodes NARRATIVE • Explore values and inspire people toward the possibility of change • Enrich quantitative information with qualitative evidence • Make out connections and create common purpose • Improve the effectiveness of strategic decisions

Instrumental, transmissive, and narrative reminiscence might be considered a gain in performance without practice.

—Olivier Serrat

THE TARGETING OF ENGAGING TALES If Your Objective is To

You Will Need a Story That

Spark Action

Describes how a successful change was implemented in the past, but allows listeners to imagine how it might work in their situation

Communicate who you are

Provides audience-engaging drama and reveals some strength or vulnerability from your past

Transmit values

Feels familiar to the audience and will prompt discussion about the issues raised by the values being promoted

Foster collaboration

Movingly recounts a situation that listeners have also experienced and that prompts them to share their own stories about the topic

Tame the grapevine

Highlights, often through the use of gentle humor, some aspect of a rumor that reveals it to be untrue or unlikely

Share knowledge

Focuses on mistakes made and shows in some detail how they were corrected, with an explanation of why the solution worked

Lead people into the future

Evokes the future you want to create without providing excessive detail that will only turn out to be wrong

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THE TACTICS GOOD STORIES OF ENGAGING TALES • Use a variety of narrative patterns for different aims • • • • • • •

Include personal and human elements of experience Present the point of view of the person involved Recount both successful and failed interventions Offer a solution to problems Play to what is already in people’s minds Target people with decision-making authority Achieve a balance between words from persons and statements from organizations

A STORYTELLING TEMPLATE Item

Content

Title

The title of the story

Storyteller

The name of the reminiscing party

Listener

The name of the narrative practitioner

Landscape

The scene in time and space

Dwelling Place

The location where the action took place

Characters

The roles and descriptive attributes of the cast

Challenge

The opportunity or problem that triggered the action

Action

The sequence of events before, during, and after the turning point

The Turning Point

The moment when the change took place

Resolution

The message, moral, or lesson learned

Visual Hook

The mnemonic that triggered the story

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ARTIFACTS OBJECTS AND DISPLAYS THAT SPEAK • Prompt a very physical experience

• Connect pictures with stories • Trigger reminiscing to surface memories

DIFFERENT WAYS JUMPSTART STORY TO ENGAGE • Initiates an event

• Connects a storyteller to other participants to build connections through a shared experience HALF-A-STORY • Looks forward from the present • Responds to possibly difficult challenges • Uses an unfinished story to shape possible paths and logs opportunities and risks along the way FUTURE STORY • Engenders a common vision • Supports teams hampered by defensive routines or experiencing “stuck” patterns • Enables the psychological shifts necessary for change • Sparks collective action • Creates a benchmark to look back on when the future arrives • Alternatively, looks back from the future as if it had already happened STORY-IN-A-WORD • Elicits personal stories from triggers • Enriches understanding of experience STORY COMPETITION • Makes varied experiences available to the public

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NOOKS FOR TALES CREATE A SPACE IN WHICH • • • • • • •

There is an entente between you and I Factors that constrain or block engagement are acknowledged Ideas can be expressed freely A rhythm is established in response to the sharing of experience Reminiscences are honest, with no recrimination Conversations can continue Emerging assets are put to use

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

—James Allen

ADB STORIES

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ADB STORIES

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ADB STORIES

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FURTHER READING • Steven Denning. 2004. Telling Tales. Harvard Business Review.

May. pp. 122–129.

• Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. 2004.

Story Guide: Building Bridges Using Narrative Techniques.

Available: www.deza.admin.ch/ressources/resource_en_155620.pdf • ADB. 2009. Storytelling. Manila.

Available: www.adb.org/publications/storytelling • ADB. 2010. Building Narrative Capacity in ADB. Manila.

Available: www.adb.org/publications/building-narrative-capacity-adb • ADB. 2010. ADB: Reflections and Beyond. Manila.

Available: www.adb.org/publications/adb-reflections-and-beyond • ADB. 2011. ADB Sustainable Development Timeline. Manila.

Available: www.adb.org/publications/adb-sustainable-developmenttimeline • ADB. 2011. On Second Thought. Manila.

Available: www.adb.org/publications/second-thought • ADB. 2012. Audio, Video, and Podcasts. Manila.

Available: www.adb.org/site/knowledge-management/multimedia • ADB. 2012. Interactive Stories of Sustainable Development.

Manila. Available: www.adb.org/publications/interactive-storiessustainable-development • ADB. 2012. Knowledge as Culture. Manila.

Available: www.adb.org/publications/knowledge-culture • ADB. 2012. The Long Reach of Short Tales. Manila.

Available: www.adb.org/features/ahead-curve-long-reach-shorttales?ref=site/knowledge-management/features

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ABOUT THE ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK ADB’s vision is an Asia and Pacific region free of poverty.

Its mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people. Despite the region’s many successes, it remains home to two-thirds of the world’s poor: 1.8 billion people who live on less than $2 a day, with 903 million struggling on less than $1.25 a day. ADB is committed to reducing poverty through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration.

Based in Manila, ADB is owned by 67 members, including 48 from the region. Its main instruments for helping its developing member countries are policy dialogue, loans, equity investments, guarantees, grants, and technical assistance.

For more information, contact Knowledge Sharing and Services Center Asian Development Bank 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines Tel +63 2 632 6710 Fax +63 2 632 5264 knowledge@adb.org www.adb.org/knowledge-management/

Knowledge Primers serve as quick introductions to knowledge management and learning applications in development work.

In an attractive package, they are suitable for interactive presentations and self-learning for action. They are offered as resources to ADB staff. They may also appeal to the development community and people having interest in knowledge and learning.

© 2012 by Asian Development Bank. All rights reserved.

June 2012