ImportanceOfNarrationForCollaborationAndCommunityBuilding Importance of Narration

This
section on narration is part of a larger report on the findings of an
anthropologist who studied in depth the work practices of a group of
Xerox repair representatives

Narration is another key, if unexpected, aspect of the reps'
approach. The constant storytelling--about problems and solutions,
about disasters and triumphs, over breakfast, lunch, and coffee--serves
a number of overlapping purposes.

Reps tell stories about unsolved problems in an attempt to
generate a coherent account of what the problem is and how to solve it.
They may do this individually, putting their own story together. Or
they can do it collectively, as they draw on the collective wisdom and
experience of the group.

Stories are good at presenting things sequentially (this
happened, then that). They are also good for presenting them causally
(this happened because of that). Thus stories are a powerful means to
understand what happened (the sequence of events) and why (the causes
and effects of those events). And so storytelling is indispensable for
the reps for whom hat and why are critical matters yet often hard to
discern.

More generally, people tell stories to try to make diverse
information cohere. Economists tell stories in their models, scientists
tell stories in their experiments, executives tell stories in their
business plans, lawyers tell stories in their briefs, and so on.
Indeed, the business processes written down on Hammer and Champy's
(Process Re-engineering consultants) blank piece of paper are another
example of storytelling.

Stories, then, can be a means to discover something completely
new about the world. The value of stories, however, lies not just in
their telling, but in their retelling. Stories pass on to newcomers
what old-timers already know. Stories are thus central to learning and
education, and they allowed the reps to learn from one another.

Stories, moreover, convey not only specific information but
also general principles. These principles can then be applied to
particular situations, in different times and places. So the reps find
that they carry back what they have learned from their colleagues in
the coffee shop to a different site and a different problem.

While it may appear at first that reps used stories to
circulate information they were actually doing much more. For it is not
shared stories or shared information so much as shared interpretation
that binds people together. In their storytelling, the reps developed a
common framework that allowed them to interpret the information that
they received in a common light. To collaborate around shared
information you first have to develop a shared framework for
interpretation. "Each of us thinks his own thoughts," the philosopher
Stephen Toulmin argues. "Our concepts we share."

Learning to tell their war stories, then, was a critical part
of becoming a rep. It allowed newcomers to see the world with a rep's
eyes. And it allowed all to share in their major resource--their
collective, collaboration wisdom. "When technicians gather, their
conversation is full fo talk about machines," Orr(the anthropologist)
concludes,

This talk shows their understanding of the world of
service; in another sense, the talk creates that world and even creates
the identity of the technicians themselves. But neither talk nor
identity is that goal of the technicians' practice. The goal is getting
the job done.