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Katalina Groh, Larry Prusak: Some of the world's leading thinkers |
| Storytelling: Organizational Perspective: Larry Prusak |
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An
enemy: The machine metaphor
The last thing I’d want to say about what kills knowledge in organizations is the machine metaphor. You run up against this constantly. You know, metaphors are really important about how we live. There’s a wonderful book by George Lakoff called Metaphors You Live By. You can really understand a culture or a person by the metaphors they use. I mean, the terrible habit in American business and politics of constantly using sports metaphors, the competitive metaphors versus more cooperative metaphors, metaphors that are more about fighting each other competing and less about working together You don’t get that in other countries. But you get it big time here, It makes us strong in some ways, but it’s self-defeating in others. It’s a two edged sword. |
| Well, a machine doesn’t need
time. It doesn’t need reflection. It doesn’t need knowledge. A machine
needs a little fuel, a little direction. It’s a terrible metaphor for anything
that needs to react to a changing environment. If the environment changes,
does a machine change? Even with the most clever cybernetic things, not
really. It needs humans. And when the environment changes, organizations
need to change. It needs people.
The machine is a terrible metaphor. That was what re-engineering was about. It became such an evil force because it turns out to be computer scientist view of heaven rather than a rich understanding of how organizations work. And I think it ended up to be a disaster for America, and for the other countries foolish enough to follow us. But it didn’t start out that way. But it became that way. I'd be happy to answer questions. |
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| 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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