Storytelling is a meta-level concept in that all KM concepts, strategies, designs, interventions, and even outcomes are all reduced to and communicated as stories. KM itself is a story. Therefore good storytelling is vital in KM work. Stories are used in a variety of applications in KM work. Examples include:

• KM - designing, conceptualising & communicating KM strategies, processes & interventions. Designing and testing models & meta-models. Developing organisational metaphors.

• Leadership - telling stories that exemplify customer service, learning, change, diversity, co-operation etc.
• Culture & Change - reflecting on culture, designing a vision and roadmap of the future, employee induction programs, corporate history & grand narrative, identity
• Marketing & branding - community animation, customer engagement, customer definition
• Ideation - developing & implementing programs for responsible innovation & idea creation
  

The following story was developed for an Africa healthcare organisation in order to give people a picture of “where we are” following interviews conducted in the discovery phase of a change project. The story is designed as a point of feedback and reflection and is deliberately left as a cliff-hanger in the African storytelling tradition; what happens next is dependent on the listeners who are challenged to tell the rest of the story. In old Africa, these stories are called African Dilemma Tales. Such stories may be allegorical – many of the things described may not actually have happened and the characters might not be real. The story is designed to create a shared understanding that we are all involved in a process and that our values, attitudes and beliefs create the experience of the complex system we call an organisation. The story also allows us to talk about complex realities in a new way.

The KM & Communications SIG looks at how to manage and 'tell the story' in powerful, memorable ways. Here we look at communicating using various media to diverse audiences in order to stimulate appropriate action and leave powerful memories. This is an important aspect of Knowledge work as it involves 'telling the story' in communities and organisations. Thus this SIG is of interest to NGOs, community organisations as well as corporates in Africa. Particularly we look at:

• Media of all kinds including social media & integrative technologies

• Community animation using technology
• Graphic design in communication
• Ideas and models from media theory
• Managing the story and techniques of Grand Narrative construction and other forms of oranisational storytelling