Metaphorical stories for organizational use: The blind men and the elephant
I am often asked what kinds of traditional stories are effective in organizational storytelling. The answer is as varied as the work itself. Many stories might work in some settings and not in others; you need to take the organization and its culture into account before you pull out traditional material, the stories that rely on metaphor. Even then, you must make sure that the metaphor is clear and will not be jarring to the organization in this moment. As always, context is king.
That being said, there are a few stories that work well in many different kinds of organizations and in many cultures. These stories are effective because their metaphors are very clear; it would be hard to misunderstand their meaning, if the story is well-told at an appropriate time. The Blind Men and the Elephant is one of those stories.
This story is ancient. A version can be found in Buddhist sacred texts from around the third century BCE, but it undoubtedly existed in the oral tradition long before then. Let's take a look at the story then consider how you might use it. This is the story I tell, from several different traditional variants. You are welcome to use it.
There was once a village with six blind men among its residents. One day some traveling people brought an elephant into the town square. The blind men, having never encountered an elephant, decided they wanted to find out it was like. They were brought to the elephant and each touched it to learn what they could.
"Hey, the elephant is a tree trunk," said the first blind man who touched his leg.
"Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.
"No! it is like a snake," said the third who touched the trunk of the elephant.
"It is like a big leaf" said the fourth who touched the ear of the elephant.
"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth who touched the side of the elephant.
"It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth who touched the tusk of the elephant.
Soon they began to argue back and forth; quickly enough their argument fell to blows.
"Stop!" cried a woman nearby. "You all are right and you all are wrong. An elephant is all of those things. You each felt only one part of the elephant, so you could not know that it was more than it seemed."
The blind men mended their argument and learned a lesson from that day.
So how might you use this story?
Who needs to hear it? This story might be useful in some of the following scenarios:
- Merging cultures. When one company acquires another there is some inevitable culture clash as overlapping roles are made to work together. Reminding everyone that each piece of information is individually useful AND part of a larger whole may be useful.
- Dysfunctional teams. A team that's not communicating well may need a reminder that it will be more effective and maybe less stressed if everyone shares their knowledge so they can paint a picture of the whole.
- When else? I'm sure you can think of applications beyond these two.
Context and how to present it.? The risk with any traditional story in an organizational setting is that your listeners may feel as if you're talking down to them. By setting it in an appropriate context you can remind them that people have been contending with similar problems for a long time, and there are ways to solve them. It helps if you've already laid some groundwork for taking a breather when things are tense and sharing a story. It's up to you, as a leader, to start this before things get tough. Reminding everyone to take a moment, regroup, and come back at it is a nice way to acknowledge that work can become heated but these problems are manageable.?For instance, if your team is struggling with a few individuals who can only see one way through a problem, you might invite everyone to take a five minute break. When they come back say something like, "I've been thinking about this, and I know everyone cares a great deal about this problem but we're having trouble seeing beyond our own scope. It reminds me of the story of the blind men and the elephant..."
When to end the story and variants. What would happen if you ended the story with the argument? Could you invite the team to discuss who was right and what the story means? What if you took it further and asked them what they think happened after the blind men stopped fighting? Might you come up with some new team strategies??You may also want to consider variants of the story. I've heard it told with as few as three blind men and as many as ten. You know what your team will be most comfortable with so you get to decide how long or short the story will be.
I'd love to know what you think of this story and how you might apply it. Please let me know if thinkstory can help.
-------------------------------------
(c) 2018 Laura Packer