Jacques Chlopczyk - Transforming Organizations: Narrative and Story-Based Approaches

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The work as editors on this book put us in many varying roles throughout the last year: we were treasure seekers and visionaries, we were coaches and sparring partners, we were guides and learners. It was a great pleasure to encounter and discuss with all the professionals within the newly emerging field of narrative and story-based work in organizations along the way.

We thank the authors for their precious contributions in this book, helping to strengthen the awareness for storytelling organizations and the work with stories in transformational processes.

A special gratitude is extended to the BEYOND STORYTELLING network and community. Throughout the past years, this growing community of practitioners committed itself to the advancement of the theory and practice of narrative work in organizations and communities. For us, this community exemplifies innovation, support and learning.

January 2019

is one of the founders of NARRATA Consult ( www.narrata.de ), a consulting network focusing on the development and application of narrative methods in the fields of knowledge management and cultural change management. Since 1998 she has been specializing in finding and transferring tacit knowledge and cultural values and beliefs in organizations. She uses narrative methods for nudging reflection and learning processes, concerning formerly hidden values and beliefs in change processes. The consultant and facilitator is lecturing at the HdM Stuttgart and has published diverse book contributions concerning the narrative and story-based approach to knowledge management and to cultural change.

Throughout the recent decades, a plot has emerged that situates the world on the edge of a fundamental transformation that will alter how our societies, our economies, and the organizations that we work with operate.

There are many books written about this transition and what it means for societies, economies, organizations and individuals. And this transition has been given many names. But no matter how we call it, the pressure to change, adapt, and transform can be felt everywhere. There is a substantial agreement that something is changing in a very fundamental way.

If we zoom out and take a macro-perspective, we are now entering a configuration that can best be described as a new industrial revolution with the widespread proliferation of new technologies throughout the world, enabling new ways of working, of value creation, and of connection between different actors in different market places.

It is of course not the case that transformation or change is something new. Organizations have always transformed to adapt to changing markets, new technological developments, altered behavior of customers, and changed expectations of their workforce. Yet, it seems that the pace is perceived as getting higher and the story why change is needed is changing.