Can I do this?
This guy left a comment that I think is really interesting. I want it to be an entry. Is this bad blogging etiquette? I figure I can get away with it because I am the small fry of the blogosphere.
It’s about the “organizational storytelling” (the narratives of orgs). How cool is that? Definitely my new favorite term.
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“You’re right on the mark…story is the fabric of our lives. Every relationship, every object, every experience is stored in the mind as a story. Story is the oldest most proven way we humans learning information, make sense and meaning of our world. Now…we have the choice to choose the right stories for whatever reality we want to create. Memory (past), dreams (future), and identity (present) are three dimensions of story that one can consciously work with, at both the individual and organizational levels.
If interested, check out the 4th annual Smithsonian conference on organizational storytelling going on this weekend April 16-18th in Washington DC (which I’m helping to organize)
http://www.stevedenning.com/Smithsonian04.html.
Also launching on Thursday, April 15th with be http://www.storyatwork.com - a web site for our community of practice on organizational storytelling (GoldenFleece) with a compendium of resources, tools, examples, consultants, etc…relevant for the fields of story-based approaches to knowledge management, branding, marketing, strategic planning, fundraising, social change, etc…
Also check out “The Story Factor” by Annette Simmons - one of my favorite recent books on org story.
Story is indeed a social connector and the juice by which we connect, exchange, transact, belong, inspire, and ultimately transform our world.”
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What’s also funny about this is the way that he found about my post. He probably found it via this guy who rights about nonprofit orgs who found it via Seb’s post (and I’m positive that Seb only read my blog because I commented on his one of his blog entries the day before).
Someone else checked out Seb’s post, and wrote an entry about it. I found out about it randomly while I was checking out the stats on my weblog. (And yes, if your wondering, I will check out a site if I get more than 2 hits from it. That’s how you act when you’re a mini-blogger). Anyways, so I responded to it. That’s probably the last thing he was expecting. Especially because he disagrees with what I said in the entry and then says “Simplistic? Of course. But since no one reads this except the ëbots, Iím sticking to it :-)”. (I can’t link to his entry with my comment - the permalink doesn’t include a link to see comments. Annoying).
It’s all kinda silly, but it also makes you realize how much the blogging system sucks. You lose control of and relation to your information way too easily.
The whole thing makes me wish I’d written the original post a lot better.
April 13th, 2004 at 10:43 am
You could always rewrite the original post!
April 13th, 2004 at 12:52 pm
Good point. I never really thought of that.
April 13th, 2004 at 11:19 pm
“Anyways, so I responded to it. That’s probably the last thing he was expecting.”
Yep. That *was* the last thing I was expecting! And I don’t think I disagree with you (although you might :-)
I think I’m now more clear about the point you were making (the power of conscious choices in developing — perhaps in a social-constructivist manner — the self-narrative that helps to define us). I would claim that the rather shallow point I made is about an orthoganal mechanism; the siren-song of being able to talk about it later has driven me into some of my coolest experiences.
And then, of course, I get to add to my self-definition “a guy who does stuff just to try to get a good story out of it”, but that’s getting a little too meta for me.
The more troubling aspect of this whole conversation is not that I’m clearly out of my depth trying to talk about all this, but that someone’s reading besides the ‘bots. Now I’ll have to spell-check! :-)
“I can’t link to his entry with my comment - the permalink doesn’t include a link to see comments. Annoying”
Agreed. I’ll see if I can figure out how to alter my templates to do so (any pointers welcome).
April 15th, 2004 at 12:22 am
Bill, I think it’s great that you commented. Gives the story a good ending ;)
And if anyone is “out of their depth” it’s me, but that won’t stay my pen.
Anyways - here’s the link to my response to Bill’s post:
http://ketchup.franklin.indiana.edu/wdueber/ITCA/archives/000010.html