Narrative Organizations: Making Companies Future Proof by Working With Stories

  • 4h 40m
  • Christine Erlach, Michael Müller
  • Springer
  • 2020

This book shows how to work with stories and narrative approaches in almost all fields of action of a company, and demonstrates the added value resulting from a holistic narrative perspective. The authors take thereby a practice-based perspective from the viewpoint of managing directors, the C-suite, organizational developers, corporate communicators and advisers with a rich description of the methods and implementation.

By the employment of these narrative methods, leadership styles, communication, knowledge and change management can be planned in such a way that on the one hand the identity-core of the enterprise remains always apparent and on the other, the organization can develop in an agile fashion into the future.

About the Authors

Christine Erlach is one of the pioneers of narrative work in companies in German-speaking countries. As a founder of the consulting firm NARRATA Consult she used narrative methods already in the 90s in organizations, in order to lift hidden knowledge treasures, values, and attitudes and to make them usable. She is an expert for knowledge transfer with retiring experts, an experienced consultant and a coach in transformation processes in companies and a trainer for narrative methods and storytelling. With numerous publications, she has contributed to Storytelling's popularity in Germany since its inception and passes on her experience in seminars and teaching assignments to organizations and students. Together with Michael Müller she leads the first European advanced training with university certificate for "Narrative Organizational Consulting".

Michael Müller has been one of the leading experts for narrative methods in the management field for years, with both theoretical and practical know-how. With his expertise, he helps companies and workshop participants to discover their own company histories and thus to optimize change processes and holistically integrated communication. He is a Professor at the Stuttgart Media University (Germany) and heads the Institute for Applied Narration Research (IANA). His books on the narrative approach to organizations have become fundamental works in the ever-growing community of narrative consultants.

The guest author Karin Thier is a pioneer on Storytelling in enterprises - a pioneer of the first hour. With NARRATA Consult, she co-created a consulting network that specializes in the employment of storytelling and the development of narrative management methods.

In this Book

  • Introduction—Storytelling, Storylistening, and the Stories About Your Boss
  • Stories—What Organizations Are Made Of
  • The Cartography of Narrative Organizations
  • Why the Future Belongs to Narratively Competent Organizations
  • Intermezzo—Clearings in the Jungle of Narrative Terms
  • Rabbit Holes to Narrative Organizations
  • Narrative Interviews—The Big Stories
  • The Storylistening Workshop—Sharing Experiences
  • Event Curve—Identifying Central Experiences
  • Learning Histories—Learning from Multiple Perspectives
  • Core Story—Finding a Common Denominator
  • Case Study—Storytelling in the Press and Public Relations at Porsche AG
  • Narrative System Map—Analyzing the Culture of Organizations
  • Transfer Stories—Retrieving Hidden Knowledge
  • Case Study—Narrative Knowledge Transfer with Leaving Experts
  • Hero’s Journey—Imbuing Projects and Processes with Life
  • Actants—Establishing the Field of Relational Forces
  • Springboard Story—Using Stories to Win Over People
  • 90-Second Backstory—Saying a Lot in a Short Time
  • Working with Metaphors—Building Parallel Worlds
  • Case Study—Storytelling for Urban Development in Bad Bergzabern
  • Narrative Change Architecture—Making Change Accessible
  • Narrative Strategy Development—Narrating the Path Toward the Future
  • Case Study on Future Stories—A Narrative Change Process at the Vorarlberger Kinderdorf
  • Epilogue—Five First Steps to Become a Narrative Organization
  • The Elixir—Seven Classics on the Narrative Perspective
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