Circle of the 9 Muses by David Hutchens

Author:David Hutchens
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781118973967
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2015-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

Invite the Witness

Don't stop with customers. Who else should be present? Consider bringing in your stakeholders and retired leaders. It's surprising how often people will explore stories without inviting the perspectives of the people whom the story is about. So bring them in.

What if the witnesses have died or are simply unavailable? Bring in the witness to the witness. I recently helped a six-decade-old health-care firm capture its origin stories. The founder had died several years ago, but his 90-year-old widow was alive. We invited her to the office and captured video of her telling stories about her late husband's values and his intent in establishing the organization. The exercise was as much a gift to the widow as it was to the entire organization, which might otherwise have lost those memories forever.

Leaders have asked me specifically whether it is appropriate to tell someone else's story. The answer is absolutely. However, it is not appropriate to tell the story from the other person's point of view. Instead, tell the story from your perspective as a witness. “I heard a leader tell this amazing story the other day. He said. . . . And here is how it affected me to hear him tell that story . . .”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.