On Getting the Story Crooked (and Straight)

Without the stories, or narratives that organisations construct,there could be no social negotiation or sense making. A problem is that the narratives are often “too straight”, too simplistic and self‐serving to be helpful representations of reality. Most stories in organisations that are used to manage change efforts are too simple, and too much believed. They foster naive optimism that soon degenerates into cynicism. Stories are maps, but are often confused with the territories themselves. Some examples of stories or accounts of organisational change efforts that are straight, and how they might have been made more“crooked”, are discussed. Some suggestions on how leaders in organisations can become more thoughtful consumers of straight stories and make those stories more helpful maps to guide organisations through the turbulence of change are offered.