Abstract
In a world of irreducible complexity, we need to employ methods and approaches that allow us to approach leadership adaptively, connecting insights, people, and practices flexibly and adjusting as we go. Key elements, such as empathy, cannot be trained into people but are properties that emerge in context. Narrative is one of the ways we create and make sense of our organisational contexts. By revealing and juxtaposing narrative patterns through multiple perspectives, we can create the circumstances for awareness, empathy, connection, learning, and other desirable characteristics to develop. In this session, the theoretical basis for using micro-narratives and the practice of self-signification will be introduced through a combination of presentation and practical exercises. These elements will be complemented by methods based on combining insights from complexity science, the sciences of human cognition, and disciplines that study human societies, such as anthropology. We will also address the key question of how people’s right to make sense of their own stories is both fairer, and produces better data. Real examples and data from past uses of this tool will support the session. By looking at what micro-narratives are, how they can be collected in organisations, why the process of making sense of them matters, and how it reveals attitudes, attendees will develop increased awareness of the use and relevance of complexity-based techniques in their contexts and practices and leave with practical methods to use immediately as well as paths to future discovery.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Narrative, Sense-making, Complexity, Anthrocomplexity, Signification, Methods, Cynefin
