The Springboard

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How to use storytelling to accomplish corporate communication goals - Rated
Stephen Denning is the senior executive responsible for knowledge management at the World Bank. As the author of several well-received books on the power of corporate storytelling, Denning is a recognized guru and pretty much dominates the storytelling franchise among business writers. He believes that simple stories, told face-to-face, possess a remarkable ability to convey information so that people readily understand it. Just as important, stories can be extremely inspirational if you tell them the right way. Use this powerful narrative technique to introduce new organizational strategies or change plans, to detail a corporate vision, to motivate employees, and to communicate with customers and other key external audiences. If you handle corporate communication, this book shows you how to put storytelling to work to boost your performance. We regard Denning as an innovative thinker and communicator, and recommends his thoughtful, valuable book. In fact, this book is worthwhile for anyone who wants to learn how to communicate more effectively, regardless of the purpose or circumstances.

The Power of the Business Narrative: Emotional Engagement - Rated
Think about it. Who are among the greatest storytellers throughout history? My own list includes Homer, Plato, Chaucer, Aesop, Jesus, Dante, Boccaccio, the brothers Grimm, Confucius, Abraham Lincoln, Hans Christian Andersen, and most recently, E.B. White. Whatever the genre (epic, parable, fable, allegory, anecdote, etc.), each used exposition, description, and narration to illustrate what they considered to be fundamental truths about the human condition. In this volume, Denning focuses on "how storytelling ignites action in knowledge-led organizations" and does so with uncommon erudition, precision, and eloquence.

His narrative covers a period of approximately three years during which he used what he calls "springboard" stories to "spark organizational change" at The World Bank. More specifically, to forge a consensus within that organization to support the design and then implementation of effective knowledge management, first for itself and then for its clients worldwide. How he accomplished that objective is in and of itself a fascinating "story" but the book's greater value lies in what he learned in process, lessons which are directly relevant to virtually all other organizations (regardless of size or nature) which struggle to "do more with less and do it faster" in the so-called Age of Information. Maximizing use of their collective intellectual capital is most often the single most effective way to do that.

There are several reasons why this book impressed me so much. Here are three. First, Denning allows his reader to accompany him during the process by which he eventually overcame rigorous but subtle internal opposition to what was perceived to be a threat to the status quo at The World Bank. Second, he shares with his reader the profoundly important realization -- well along during the process -- that he needed to use a "springboard" story to win over his opposition. That is to say, practice what he had been preaching but without (until then) much success. Finally, he provides just about anything his reader needs to know inorder to use storytelling to achieve the same objectives within her or his own organization: forge a consensus of support, design and implement an internal information management program, and then extend participation and benefits to all other stakeholders, especially customers or clients as well as strategic partners.

The comprehensive narrative (which really increases in pace and impact after Denning's "profoundly important realization") is supplemented by six appendices: Elements for Developing the Springboard Story, Some Elements for using Visual Aids in Storytelling, Elements for Performing the Springboard Story, Building Up the Springboard Story: Four Different Structures, Examples of Springboard Stories, and finally, a Knowledge Management Chart. The Bibliography which follows is brief but more than adequate. The footnotes are conveniently provided within each chapter to facilitate correlation with Denning's text and indicate the nature and extent of his erudition.

Although Denning could probably hold his own during a workshop conducted within the highest of ivory towers, I value even more (much more) his immensely practical approach to accommodating all manner of realities such as the aforementioned opposition to his efforts within The World Bank and the importance of telling the appropriate "springboard" story to an external audience. For example, the same story which was enthusiastically received by his audience in London was met with polite silence soon thereafter by another audience in Bern.

In this review, I have only begun to indicate the nature and extent of the invaluable wisdom and practical advice which Denning provides. Why Five Stars? Because a higher rating is not available.

For whatever reasons, only in recent years has there been an awareness and appreciation of the importance of the business narrative. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Annette Simmons' The Story Factor, Doug Lipman's Improving Your Storytelling, and Storytelling in Organizations co-authored by John Seely Brown, Denning, Katarina Groh, and Laurence Prusak.

Useful stories! But is this what storytelling is about? - Rated
I came to this book with high expectations but was disappointed. As a lover of stories, I was interested to see how stories may be used to initiate social and organizational change and to inspire people. Denning's book advocates a particular type of story, he calls it 'springboard story', precisely because of its ability to spark change, to stimulate energy and enthusiasm. The prototypical such story which provided Denning with his Damascus experience is one about a health worker in deepest Zambia, who in the early days of the internet, found the answer to his quest for a treatment of malaria by accessing a web-site in Atlanta. Fair enough, an interesting story; but not a great one. Seeing Denning stretch this and other similar stories to great lengths ends up by reminding me of out-of-touch vicars telling stories which bore or embarrass their audiences. The book fails to examine counter-stories and strips down stories to a narrow 'usefulness' which takes the heart, the fun and the meaning out of them. If you want to look for a deeper understanding of organizational storytelling you must look elsewhere.

Entertaining account of World Bank and knowledge mangement - Rated
During the era of oral tradition (which far exceeds our measure of the written history) the storytellers were the priests since they were the keepers if the body of knowledge of their known boundaries of civilization. The windows that are provided by later renditions of these treasures are always quite interesting. Homer wrote down the stories he had heard as did Saxo Gramaticus (whose stories Shakespeare later immortalized). "Mahabharata" and "Panchatantra" give insight into some of the Easter cultures. The stories of the graceful hulas were originally only performed by men in elegant sign language to communicate the Polynesian stories between tribes of different languages. Stephen Denning gives us an unpretentious, entertaining window to follow the story of the entry of The World Bank into ever more formalized management of knowledge.

After finding the existence of Stephen Denning through the WWW, ... I was drawn to his philosophy of trying to find the least expensive and most expeditious methods of tearing down barriers for acquisition of knowledge by anyone who was seeking. What I see can be used by the highest and lowest ranking seekers. I suspect that managers of large organizations both private and public will most appreciate the problems encountered.

David Napper, director of a small company in Denmark