The Side-Effect of Storytelling in a Complex Domain: A Lesson from Christendom

Many Knowledge Management (KM) experts have been singing praises on the “forgotten” ancient technique, the storytelling. They argued that stories are able to capture the context of knowledge and thus they are effective medium for storing and transferring knowledge, especially tacit knowledge. They presented their case through evidence from the past when human have not developed writing, knowledge is preserved and distributed from one generation to the next via stories. Due to this reason, there is revival of interest in storytelling to persuade, influence, and inform. 

While I agree that storytelling is a powerful KM tool, stories are not born equal and they need to be managed differently if we were to exploit the power of storytelling. There are two categories of stories. First is the story within a clearly defined domain. For example: the story of global warming by a former US vice president - Al Gore, the story of how Obama won the US presidency. 

Second, the story within a complex domain. For example: the stories in the Christians' Holy Bible. Every Christian knows that the Holy Bible is full of stories, from the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis, to the story of the Dragon and the Woman in Revelation. We also know that there are implicit messages (knowledge) behind every story in the bible, and all of them are still applicable today. The stories in the Holy Bible are able to preserve the context of knowledge, which gives us cues to apply the knowledge in today’s situation. 

Let's examine the second point further. In a complex domain like religion, the property of stories that enables them to capture the richness of knowledge in its context, also results in multiple interpretations. While we would want diverse perspectives to encourage innovation and create new knowledge, multiple views could be divisive, creating knowledge silos that compete with one another. This is evident in the various and ever-growing Christians denominations - each with their own understanding of the Holy Bible. 

Christianity depicts the side-effect of storytelling in a complex domain, the issue of ‘lost in translation’: as stories were told from one person to another, an additional context or interpretation may be added by the storyteller, which either make the story richer or dilute the message. In 325 AD, the first council of Nicaea was convened to attain consensus to create unity of beliefs among Christians, resulting in the Creed of Nicaea. It was basically an attempt to resolve taxonomy issues.

As we probe further into storytelling in Christendom, we find that Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John – each of them can be seen as a storyteller - described Jesus Christ in different manner. It shows that they make sense of the story of Jesus Christ in their own context (understanding), and thus adding additional context into the original story, before they transfer their knowledge either through writings or tutelage. 

There is a need to point out, however, that the majority of stories in the Holy Bible is opaque – full of symbols, metaphors, and meanings. The complex domain, Christianity, is exacerbated by lost meanings due to the process of language translation, i.e. from greek to other languages and the fact that no living authors to clarify the stories recorded in the Holy Bible. This breeds different, and potentially divisive, interpretations. 

It is clear that storytelling in a complex domain needs to be managed through taxonomic interference - one that builds common ground and allows for group sense-making. Failure to do so, may results in knowledge silos - partial knowledge that could potentially misguided the knowledge seeker. 

Interestingly, even though the Holy Bible did not offer explicit solution to this issue, we can learn from the existence of the first and second councils of Nicaea. Both councils of Nicaea - attended by the majority of the Bishops on each era - were essentially sense-making activities intended to build common ground, i.e. resolve the differences in the Christian belief understanding. Furthermore, it worth noted that although the Bishops defined a clear boundary on the principles of Christianity, they did not produce stifling guidelines.

The Creed of Nicaea offers a clear, but not too restrictive, taxonomic guidelines that provide sufficient common ground to allow knowledge transfer and act as boundary spanning object to cultivate new insights. It leaves enough space for multiple perspectives, i.e. the major Christians denominations like Presbyterian, Charismatics, 7th Day Adventist, and yet filters teachings that were considered heretics like gnostic teachings. Modern business storytellers could take cues - flexibility and clarity - from the creed of nicaea, and it should guide them when telling stories, especially the ones in a complex domain. 

First Council of Nicaea. Retrieved June 24, 2009, from Wikipedia. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea.  

Lambe, P. (2007). Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge, and Organisational Effectiveness. Oxford: Chandos Publishing.