The Springboard : How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations
Author: Stephen Denning
List Price: $27.95
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ISBN: 0750673559
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann (06 October, 2000)
Sales Rank: 6,490
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
An invaluable aid to managing change.
The Springboard belongs on any short list for best business book of its year. It is an essential addition to the bookshelf of anyone, executive or consultant, who is concerned with the management of change.This is a book that I will keep with the half dozen or so to which I constantly refer. The context of the book is the introduction of knowledge management into a very large organization - The World Bank - but its relevance extends to any and every aspect of the change process.
The form of the book is an extended story about storytelling and the impact of a particular type of story in engaging the attention and commitment of people to necessary change. It is written directly, simply and with a poet's precision of language, which makes it immensely readable. Many of the books that I review, I skim for points of value. This one I read from cover to cover, and enjoyed doing so.
The thesis is a simple one and the extended framing story about the development of knowledge management within The World Bank, which makes up the book, proves the thesis. Change is driven both by the logic of the relationship of the organization to its environment and by the interaction of human hopes, fears and preferred perspectives (mental models) with the 'objective' situation. When new departures are needed, an appropriate story can engage the imagination and creative powers of the audience, where analysis and logical argument may only engage the critical faculty. A story can provide the means of circumventing an unacknowledged fear of change and built-in defences by enticing the audience to participate in the creation of a world that overcomes problems which affect all of them. Denning's thesis is not that a story is all that is needed; it is that the initiating power of stories has been neglected in our culturally preferred analytical approach to problem definition and problem solving.
I happen to have been working with an organization that seeks to do on a smaller scale some of the things that The World Bank does on a very large scale, and is currently experiencing many of the issues that Denning describes in The Springboard. Both his diagnosis and his prescription ring absolutely true. In every chapter I found explanations, ideas and suggestions that are immediately useful and helpful, not only to that situation, but to any change management situation.
There are five invaluable appendices summarizing aspects of the development, presentation and performance of springboard stories, structures for building up a springboard story and examples of stories with explanatory marginal notes on the role of each part of the story. These provide an extremely useful ready reference for the practitioner.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A simple concept - a powerful idea ...
On the surface, "Storytelling for organizational change" seems like a simple tale of a simple solution to a vexing problem. It is a tale of a journey into the uncharted territory of knowledge management, but it is also a tale of how telling stories enabled major organizational changes to take place. Again on the surface, it seems deceptively simple - just tell a story and the organization will change. Therein lies the paradox: on the surface, it is a simple story. Beneath the surface, though, it is a story of Denning's quiet persistence on the given strategy, of shepherding, coaxing, coercing and guiding others over whom he had no authority to go in the direction of that strategy. Throughout the book, Denning shows how he combined the vision and strategy of sharing knowledge with his search for ways and means to make people in the organization understand what this meant and to get them to buy-in and join the journey. His sensitivity to his audiences' reactions and subsequent deep introspection leads him to question the established ways of communicating about change. This is the real power of "Storytelling for organizational change": it is his introspection, his questioning and research, that led him to uncovering the power of telling stories - and not just any story, but a specific type of story that not only has all the components of the changes being introduced, but also has the power to transport the listener to a place where he or she can actually see their own organization working in the way described in the story. Denning gives specific ideas and tips for finding, creating and using springboard stories for organizational change. What the reader must develop for him- or herself is the ability to emulate Denning's quiet but relentless persistence in the face of both overt and covert resistance - which runs as a second strand throughout the book - in seeking out and using the stories to show how the organizational change is both valid and successful. This book has value to anyone trying to introduce any type of organization change, as well as for introducing knowledge management itself.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A Masterpiece
I have read a few books and articles about the importance of storytelling in business. This book finally makes sense of it all, and provides useful explanations for why it works where other more traditional approaches simply do not. Well written and highly informative. Simply, a masterpiece! Similar Products
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