Lessons from Lewis & Clark—a new white paper is coming

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —May 15, 2008
Filed in Business storytelling, Culture

David Drake and I have written a new white paper describing a narrative approach to successful organisational change. We’ve built on our three journeys metaphor, which you might remember was inspired by the epic exploration of the the US West by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Apart from describing the three journeys we’ve drawn a set of lessons from the Corps of Discovery (the nickname for the expedition) for each of our three journeys. Here are the lessons from our first journey:

  • It is important to be clear on sharing the rewards before there are any.
  • Travelling requires both authority and freedom/permission.
  • Change requires an organisation to venture into unknown territory; it is as much about discovery as it is about design.
  • Every change process has its “St. Louis”—a jumping off point into the unknown, a hub for action, and a platform to which one can return.
  • Often the landscape changes merely as a result of setting out on the journey.

If you’d like to early notification and the ability to get this paper before we publish it more widely, please sign up for our monthly newsletter. In the next few days I will share the lessons for the second and third journey.

 

About  Shawn Callahan

Shawn, author of Putting Stories to Work, is one of the world's leading business storytelling consultants. He helps executive teams find and tell the story of their strategy. When he is not working on strategy communication, Shawn is helping leaders find and tell business stories to engage, to influence and to inspire. Shawn works with Global 1000 companies including Shell, IBM, SAP, Bayer, Microsoft & Danone. Connect with Shawn on:

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