LIKE 4 THE ROLE OF STORY TELLING IN KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Frogs in the British Library?

On Thursday 29 May 2009 LIKE4 kicked off with the telling of a story about a frog. Why frogs?
Pool frogs from Norfolk are the subject of a case study run by the Science Team at the British
Library.
To start the evening with a bit of fun I transformed the case study into a fairy tale.

Spring Board stories

Another reason why I chose the frog case study is, that it comes very close to what Stephen
Denning, a former World Bank knowledge worker, calls a “Springboard story”.
In essence a Springboard story is one that triggers ideas in people’s minds; that change their
perceptions of certain situations. This works especially well where an organisation needs to
implement change.
In order for this to work a Springboard Story must have certain characteristics:
• Be true, or at least believable
• Be brief and not contain too much detail, because this may prevent a train of thought
arising in the mind of the listeners.
• Have one protagonist (a person or organisation) that users can identify with
• Embodies the change message, and contain a level of surprise
• Have a happy ending – negative stories only trigger defence responses in people and
won’t help people accept a change message.

Discussion
The discussions centred around three main topics:

1. Types of stories

We can tell stories in many different ways, from fairy tales to charts and graphs, and from
novels to Twitter tweets. Humans have been telling stories for thousands of years and
continue to do so. Stories capture our imagination and we can’t get enough of them.
Stories in organisations range from anecdotes to stories about the founding history of the
organisation, sometime called business evolution tales. A typical example is 3M, the company
that gave us the Post-it note and Scotch Tape. The stories told in this company underline the
values held by 3M, quite unusual values one might say. Both anecdotes and more elaborate
stories can covey the key values of an organisation.
Case studies are very often used in organisations, for instance to demonstrate a competence,
but also to encapsulate business values. The case study project run by the Science Team of
the British Library aimed to show the relevance of the Library’s scientific collections to present
day research.
The discussion identified numerous story-telling vehicles available to us - whether in words or
images; Pictures/photos, graphics, mime, letters, Twitter, role play, film, radio, TV. Even
architecture can tell a story.

2. What makes a good story?

Mitchell refers to Klein, who lists the characteristics of a good story, most of which are also
mentioned by Denning in relation to the Springboard Story: plausibility, conveying drama,
invoking empathy, uniqueness and having an element of surprise. 1
Throughout the discussions all these elements were mentioned, but in addition we came up
with aspects such as the need for a relaxed setting, a safe environment to encourage others
to tell stories. A good story allows the audience to relate to the character(s) in the story and a
good dose of humour always helps to bring the message across.

3. Value to business of stories?

1
Mitchell, 2005
The Xerox Corporation discovered that ‘a quick breakfast can be worth hours of training’.2
What does this quote tell us? I think it says that story telling is a very engaging and appealing
way of conveying knowledge, often more effective than training; that it is less time consuming
and therefore more cost- effective than traditional ways of transferring knowledge. The
informal setting helps people to shed their inhibitions about ‘speaking in a group’.
Stories are a way to package boring topics in a more palatable form and therefore make it
easier to remember the message, especially if the message isn’t an easy one. They are the
perfect vehicle for conveying lessons learned, whether in the form of fairy tales and folk tales,
or in the shape of case studies.
They provide a context for issues and for understanding informal rules and values (culture) in
organisations, once a critical mass of stories circulating in an organisation is captured.3
They prepare the ground for instigating change and throw light on the bigger picture.
A good story makes you think.

Conclusion
From my research and the discussions at LIKE4 I conclude that story telling plays an
important role in knowledge sharing. This is mainly because it is a way of communicating that
has appealed to humans for thousands of years. A good story attracts attention and makes
people think.
But maybe storytelling works so well because we all like to hear and tell stories.

I would like to thank my colleagues of the Science Team at the British Library and Sandra
Agard, story teller at Peckham Public Library for their help and input.

Bibliography
Bennet, Alex, The Use of Storytelling in DON. http://tiny.cc/U9OM9
Denning, Stephen, The Springboard : how storytelling ignites action in knowledge-era
organizations, Boston, 2000.
Mitchell, Helen J. , Knowledge Sharing- the Value of Story Telling
In: Int. J. Organisational Behaviour, Vol. 9, 2005, nr 5 (May), p.632-641.

For more information on story telling you may find these websites helpful:
Story Tellers Society www.sfs.org.uk
Stephen Denning on Spring Board stories: www.creatingthe21stcentury.org
The Story tellers; www.the-storytellers.com/why-storytelling

2
Id, p, 638
3
Bennet, IL Toolkit – The Use of Story Telling in DON.