The role of storytelling in knowledge management
Featured in the Knowledge Management training manual
By Mike Bagshaw & Paul Phillips
Category: Management
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
At its root, knowledge management is really about increasing the effectiveness of the creation, diffusion and adoption of ideas. Some of this knowledge is very complex. Stories are a very powerful way to represent complex, multi-dimensional concepts. This training activity focuses on the skill of capturing peoples’ stories in order to bring to the surface the tacit knowledge gained from the experience of significant events.
You introduce this training activity with a real case study to demonstrate the power of listening to people’s stories for business results. Then, the participants take part in an exercise in which they share stories about themselves. The main exercise comprises coaching the group in the technique known as learning histories – a way of gathering and disseminating stories in order to make tacit knowledge explicit for organisational learning. After a short presentation on ‘the leader as storyteller’, you ask the group to present the results of their learning history exercise. You round off the training activity with a summary of what makes a powerful corporate story and, finally, the participants conduct a learning review.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to demonstrate to participants how storytelling can be used as ‘expert systems’ for storing, linking, and readily accessing information to encapsulate ‘the voice of experience’ in a memorable way.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 03:50:00 |
| No of Pages: | 22 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers as a powerful tool that can be employed in change management, leadership and programmes which require the gathering of candid views about change initiatives. It can also be employed in culture change programmes as a way of starting dialogue about the way the culture needs to change.
Download the training activity, The role of storytelling in knowledge management as featured in the Fenman training manual; Knowledge Management