The Ryan Group has proclaimed

The New Narrative Age,
“This new cultural phenomenon is virtually changing today’s organization’s fundamental approach to training, learning, knowledge transfer, strategy, change, performance, and competitiveness. Conceptually, the “narrative age” recognizes the implicit value of knowledge,” [in any given group].

In essence – we know it’s there – we can’t readily get at it – and if we do, we are unable to translate the knowledge a way that is useful to those who need it, to move from data as information to knowledge as business intelligence. We are overwhelmed by an unending streams of data (like Google search results 50,000 or more). What we used to call plan old storytelling, is now know as the Narrative; regardless what it’s called, it can be used to record different viewpoints and interpret data to identify similarities and differences in experiences and actions. The Ryan Group has developed software to help organizations tap their information and weave it into a cohesive, dynamic narrative.

It’s basically a simple idea, as old as the time. We like stories. I know, I’d learn more from a company, or an association, or a school’s story, with characters and and challenges and mistakes and victory’s, than an annual report or operations manual anyday! It makes sense when you think that we all, people all over the world have had our parents and our teachers have told us stories to illustrate morals and values. Many engaging and memorable commercials tell us a story. I remember “Mean Joe Green & Coke” or my favorite was the “Taster’s Choice Couple,” and who didn’t love “Life’s Mickey?”  Seth Godin puts it superbly…“The best stories don’t teach people anything new. Instead, the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the first place.”  With innovation’s like the Ryan Group’s, I think we’ll be hearing and reading alot more company’s stories, and if we’re smart, learning to tell them too.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 at 5:30 am and is filed under Let's Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.