Author Archive

Making sense of stories

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 29, 2007
Filed in Business storytelling

A couple of weeks ago I was helping to run a management development program. It was based on the collection and interpretation of stories of good …

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The story of the old man and the insulting children

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 27, 2007
Filed in Anecdotes, Fun

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I’m reading Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn. It’s a terrific book. This story struck my funny …

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Corporate or business anthropologist?

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 26, 2007
Filed in Business storytelling, Communication

People are intrigued by the work we do at Anecdote. When they hear how we use stories in a business setting they often mistakenly think …

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Knowledge strategy – three journeys

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 25, 2007
Filed in Strategy

Strategies should result in a set of actions making the organisation more valuable to whoever it serves. I learned this from David Maister Knowledge strategies …

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Systematically seeking the other viewpoint

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 22, 2007
Filed in Business storytelling, Communication

I was pulled up short last week. A new book arrived from Amazon called Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn and I was delighted to …

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Computer problems

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 21, 2007
Filed in News

Both Mark and I are having a world of problems with our PCs. So if you have been emailing us and not getting a reply …

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Why managers shun management books

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 14, 2007
Filed in Business storytelling, Leadership Posts

Have you ever noticed that experienced managers rarely read management books? At first I though this might be because they don’t have the time or …

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The need for walls?

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 13, 2007
Filed in Communication, Culture

Dave Snowden is puzzled with one of my posts that mentions Frost’s poem, Mending Wall, when I say: “when you read the entire poem (in context) you …

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Lessons learning: getting your colleagues to tell their stories

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 11, 2007
Filed in Business storytelling, Collaboration

One of the best ways to share knowledge in an organisation is to put people who wouldn’t normally work together on the same project. On …

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Lessons learning: context matters

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 9, 2007
Filed in News

Yesterday I posted a piece on how taking a story out of context is unlikely to help lessons learning. One of my regular commenters, Ken …

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