Fearless Change Patterns for Introducing New Ideas

Part Two: Experiences

Most of us prefer to learn new ways of doing things by hearing stories. In fact, most human conversation is really story telling. We not only tell stories to each other to explain ideas and relationships, but we also exchange technical expertise in this manner. One researcher found that Xerox copier maintenance personnel shared expertise and helped peers by telling “war stories” of maintenance adventures. We seem to understand how the world works by hearing a story about a specific experience. One study found that people were better able to remember a list of instructions when it was presented as a story. The usual approach of organizing material into categories not only takes time and effort, but the result is a structure ...