X : What do you think is the most significant cause of failure in Government efforts? Poor vision? Wrong methods used?
Me : IMHO, in Gov and corporate circles there tends to be one root cause - stories and storytelling. The curse of our generation that is behind major messes.
Me : IMHO, in Gov and corporate circles there tends to be one root cause - stories and storytelling. The curse of our generation that is behind major messes.
... stories are highly political as they are linked to the storyteller. This makes them very difficult to challenge and to question. Time and time again I've seen this with people beaten into submission through large powerpoint decks to follow a path that is clearly daft ...
... though maps won't get rid of all the politics, they provide a mechanism to "democratise strategy" (as @CatSwetel would say) by allowing challenge to happen over the map. You can say the map is wrong without saying the storyteller is. You can't do that with a story.
Stories are like navigation without maps. Your boss says that London is north of Newcastle, you can't challenge the story without saying the storyteller (your boss) is wrong. You set of north, you don't find London and you're then told you executed the story badly.
Alas we have a massive industry which makes money from convincing people that the key is to be a better story teller - shams, scams, charlatans and magic pixie dust.
