For episode 3, please watch the video and then read Alison’s account of events.
In the context of an organisation (like a University), what stories do people tell one another and why?
The fundamental human structure within any community is the relationships between two people. Individuals create informal networks for themselves to fulfil basic needs: for example, a need to feel a sense of belonging, continuity, significance and security. Storytelling plays a big part in building and sustaining those relationships: it enables us to create community for ourselves within a large organisation.
We tell stories about that organization too. We need to know what is going on so we ask questions and share information. In times of organisational change with anxiety levels heightened, the need for information intensifies. If reliable information from the top is unavailable, then, as you know, people will fill the gaps with their own ideas of what’s going on.
We also tell stories about the work. Julian Orr wrote a book called Talking About Machines which describes how photocopier repair men (within Xerox Corporation) use stories to support themselves and their work. These men work autonomously and value their independence. But they know that they have the support of one another and also of the organisation behind them. They problem-solve by talking to one another, sharing experience and knowledge. With such support, challenging situations are welcomed because they provide opportunities to be heroic and also material for better stories.
What role do stories play in your daily work? If you take one day, or even a part of a day, then can you notice all the stories you encounter (whether or not they are told by you)? What form do they take? What gives them significance?
Ref: Julian E. Orr (1996) Talking About Machines: an ethnology of a modern job Cornell University Press
Esther Walker (Forum Interactive, esther@foruminteractive.co.uk).
This is scary.
Thinking about the stories we tell, I realised that I do sometimes have the tendency to tell stories a wee bit different to what happened. It happens subconsciously – the way we filter out or filter in information. If we are all doing this (assuming I am normal!) no wonder we get such reactions to deep change in an orgnanisation.
How can we reduce this kind of effect?
What interests me is how we filter/exaggerate according to our understanding of the audience – what we think they expect/want/need/dislike etc. What clues and cues do we pick up on to do this ‘selection’ of information?
What an interesting thread! You are right Gretel and Sue, we do sometimes change the emphasis of stories to fit the audience and it is subconscious because I’ve sometimes noticed as I’m saying something and wondered why it came out that way!
Your postings have made me wonder if it matters that this happens? My honesty and pathological fear of guilt wouldn’t allow me to intentionally tell a lie, but the change in emphasis when telling a story to a different audience could, on the surface of it, possibly be interpreted as an untruth.
Is it something to do with the motivation behind the tale that decides if that matters or not? If we are telling the tale because we think that it will help the other person and therefore our motivations are good, then could that be OK? But if we are changing the emphasis of our tale to make ourselves look good, maybe that does matter.
I delivered the same presentation to three different audiences earlier this week and, looking back at the sessions, recognise that the details and the emphasis and the language used to tell the same stories in the presentation subconsciously changed each time.
Thinking about Sue’s and Colleen’s thoughts, I wonder if we filter/change and alter things in our minds to try and “fit in”. I can’t explain more clearly but don’t most of want to be part of something and we manipulate stories to get there (we probably do not know we are doing it)? We are social beings. I agree with Colleen our intention is important. Scary again – there are some bad apples in organisations…