How building relationships and conversations create possibility

Storytelling Passport to the 21st Century

John Seely Brown, Steve Denning,
Katalina Groh, Larry Prusak:
Some of the world's leading thinkers explore the role of storytelling in the world

I Introduction to storytelling I John Seely Brown on science I Steve Denning on change I Katalina Groh on videoI
Larry Prusak on organization I Discussion I | Contact us | Bibliography on storytelling |

The film-maker as storyteller: Katalina Groh


	Relationships and conversations Ros Zander: This new leadership is about relationship and it’s on conversations, that is, what is the conversation I’m having? How is that affecting the person I’m having it with? Ben Zander: (With student musician) Why do you repeat it? Why do you say that twice? Student musician: Because it’s not just his joy. It’s his JOY!!! Ben Zander: You’re right! Exactly! Now do it! And that isn’t a bad gesture (with arms in the air). Ros Zander: That’s the focus. How alive is the person I’m leading to the possibility, to the vision? How much creative action can that person take from his own inspiration? Ben Zander: We must not forget how powerful we are, we musicians. We have the whole world in our hands. We can enroll people in anything. But we have to be the possibility ourselves.

We’re not singing about it. We are being it. It’s a huge responsibility. And you know, your face it lit up with joy.So it’s not a responsibility, like “Oh, my God, what a huge, crushing responsibility!”
   No, it’s like, “Wow! Now, that’s something to get up for in the morning!”
   And your face is telling the story that it’s the greatest thing on earth to be a musician.
   But much more than that. We can enroll people in all of life. Full, expressed, passionate. Now one more time.
(student sings) Ja wohl! He’s got it! Bravo! Wonderful!
Ros Zander: What we mean by transformation is the shift from being an individual to being and living in a connected world. Music is connection. It is connection itself. We’re using it as a metaphor. But it does connect you. It’s a human language. And it’s probably one of the purest human languages that communicate to everyone.
(Group sings Beethoven’s Ode to Joy)
Ben Zander: Bravo! Bravo! Fantastic!
Stephanie Pace Marshall (President, Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy): When I saw generals and CEOs and emerging young leaders, and teachers all standing on their chairs singing Ode to Joy. I said to myself, this may be a vehicle to create a compassionate, sustainable world that works for everyone. I mean, You cannot leave without feeling a renewed sense of your own capacity, a renewed sense of your own possibility.
Ben Zander (playing the Mozart piano sonata in C major): I don’t know how I got in this position. I didn’t say, “I’m going to push myself over like this, and push my shoulder up.” No. The music pushed me over. Which is why I call it one-buttock playing. Give me the other buttock.

Books and videos on storytelling
*** In Good Company : How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work
by Don Cohen, Laurence Prusak (February 2001) Harvard Business School Press
*** The Social Life of Information, by John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid
(February 2000) Harvard Business School Press
*** The Springboard : How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations
by Stephen Denning (October 2000) Butterworth-Heinemann
*** The Art of Possibility, a video with Ben and Ros Zander : Groh Publications (February 2001)


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