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44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Richly Rewards Patience--LISTEN to the Story He Tells, October 10, 2002
This review is from: The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (KMCI Press) (Paperback)
If you are impatient, narrow-minded, and opinionated (or overly enamored of your own opinion), don't buy this book. I bought it and eventually read it because someone I respect very much recommended it. I would not have bought it at my own initiative, and part of the my purpose in writing this review is to persuade you to take a chance on this book, whose title, while accurate, may be off-putting to those that think they are serious, action-oriented, "just the facts" get on with it types.
The author has done something special here, and it is especially relevant to those of us on the bleeding edge of change in the information and intelligence industries, each trying to communicate extraordinarily complex and visionary ideas to the owners with money or the bureaucrats with power--neither of these groups being especially patient or visionary. The book accomplished three things with me, and I am a very hard person to please: 1) it compellingly demonstrated the inadequacy of the industry standard briefing, consisting of complex slides with complex ideas outlined in excrutiating detail; 2) it demonstrated how a story-telling approach can accomplish two miracles: a) explain complex ideas in a visual short-hand that causes even the most jaded skeptic to "get it," and b) do this in such a way that the audience rather than the speaker "fills in the blanks" and in so doing becomes a stakeholder in the vision for change; and 3) finally, provides several useful appendices that will help anyone craft a "story" with an action-inducing effect. The footnotes and bibliography are sufficient to make the point that this is not just a story, but a well-researched and well-documented real-world experience of great value to any gold-collar revolutionary struggling to overcome obstacles to reform.
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Power of Emotional Engagement, December 14, 2002
This review is from: The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (KMCI Press) (Paperback)
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.
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The missing link in business communication, April 12, 2001
This review is from: The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (KMCI Press) (Paperback)
The reason that The Springboard is such an important book is that the story it tells of business transformation at the World Bank deals with the missing link in the knowledge communication chain between knowledge transmitters (teachers) and knowledge receivers (learners). The link has been missing since computers made hyper-access to information possible without making it hyper-easy to assimilate. (Many would say that computer accessed information is actually more difficult to assimilate, than traditional books and journals.) One of the many virtues of The Springboard is that it practices what it preaches. Nearly everything is communicated as a story. It is the story of Stephen Denning's personal odyssey as he recounts in slightly bemused wonderment how his discovery of storytelling forged a vital link in the knowledge communication chain at the World Bank, fostering many new enduring, cross-functional communities of practice. It is written, as all stories should be, in a way that makes the reader want to know what happened next. Stories permit listeners to suspend belief - enter the realm of the make believe - for a period of time, enabling them to assimilate and resonate with new stories, instead of having first to judge the truth of what they are being told, according to personal principles and beliefs about what is true or false, or right or wrong. The power of storytelling begins with the invitation to imagine. This invitation is so much more alluring than the prospect of being told what to believe. A well-told story is never an effort to understand. Rather, it is a pleasure to follow and to discover its meaning. In Stephen Denning's words, "When a springboard story does its job, the listeners' minds race ahead, to imagine the further implications of elaborating the same idea in different contexts, more intimately known to the listeners. In this way, through extrapolation from the narrative, the re-creation of the change idea can be successfully brought to birth, with the concept of it planted in listeners' minds, not as a vague, abstract inert thing, but an idea that is pulsing, kicking, breathing, exciting - and alive". Stephen Denning is to be roundly applauded for re-opening the book on storytelling as being at the rightful centre of human communication, knowledge transfer and consequent decision making. His Springboard story is a very specific story-form, honed to be effective in the context of 21st century organisational change.
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