Have you ever wondered how to cross the stream of knowledge that rushes through your company? Storytellers offer us some insights. Jack Maguire, author of The Power Of Personal StoryTelling, writes about Donald Davis who uses a metaphor of crossing a stream on stones to describe navigating one’s way through story.
In explaining his sense of metaphor, Davis points out that it’s not just a matter of the teller not needing a full-scale bridge (completely plotted text) to negotiate the stream (story). It’s also a matter of the trip being more natural and lively for both teller and listener if the teller uses a few well-placed stones rather than a bridge.While jumping from stone to metaphorical stone, the storyteller assures the story remains dynamic with each telling. What’s more, you exercise mental muscles that would atrophy by using the full-scale bridge.
I’ve read that people who use dumbbells receive physical and mental benefits that would otherwise escape them if they were to use a weight machine, since the motion is grooved by the structure of the machine.
Wikis provide the stepping stones to take a project from beginning to end. Two months ago, I didn’t even know that “wiki” means “quick” in the Hawaiian language. Then, I used Socialtext’s collaboration software; it combines a wiki with a blog. What did I learn?
In computer science terms: wikis are highly orthogonal constructs. Plain English, please. Wikis are easy to use, since they can be used independently or in any combination. Wikis are not hierarchical structures, they are organic structures. While a hierarchy turns a stream to a trickle, organic models keep information flowing, since their structure matches the needs of information-based projects -- parallel structures are powerful structures.
Seth Godin is working on a new secret project, and he’s using a wiki to make it happen. Now, he sees a wiki as part of the fabric of any collaboration.
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