About 6 years ago I started work on a book manuscript about the power of the stories we tell, both in terms of how they limit us, and how they can be used to help us learn. My interest at that time had to do with PERSONAL stories and how they embody our beliefs about the world and ourselves, our capabilities and other people. The stories we tell ourselves (often in the form of self-talk) help us or hinder us, and I wonder if, in fact, for any of us to grow significantly, we need to modify our internal stories.
It seems like stories is a nifty way of operationalizing our beliefs about self and others. Of course that’s not particularly new in Psychology. Is the Rorscach test (inkblots) anything different than providing an ambiguous shape so a person can describe what he sees in the form of a story? Likewise with the Thematic Apperception Test(TAT).
The power of stories to help us understand can also be extend to organizations, since every organizations has stories that, like it or not, are oft repeated. What do they mean? Can we measure and interpret them? Do the stories of ten employees mean ten different things?
I don’t know the answers. But I’m interested in what others think.
How do you think of stories on both a personal level and on an organizational one. What do you think?
#1 by Milan Davidovic on February 4, 2010 - 5:15 pm
“It seems like stories is a nifty way of operationalizing our beliefs about self and others.”
We could start by setting out what we mean by “story”. Do we need a protagonist, goal, obstacles, etc.?
Also, “operationalize” in this sense?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operationalization