Organisations are narrative systems 

Narratives (i.e. imprints and thought processes in the form of stories) are underlying many communicational acts as well as the way employees and managers think and behave. Therefore, if you really want to understand an organisation and create lasting changes, you need to be aware of the stories circulating in the company and be able to work with them. This is the key to planning effective interventions and working on an organisation’s identity, internal and external communication, the creation of meaning, the leadership culture, employee motivation and change processes.

Training on a scientific basis

As results of narrative psychology and brain research suggest, people use narrative structures (stories) to understand meaning, identity, processes, strategies, visions etc. and make them comprehensible as well.

The training course “Basics of Narrative Organizational Development” enables consultants and organisational developers to work with these basic narrative principles of an organization.

“A narrative organisation can make the hidden visible, put knowledge to use and discover new possibilities for action.”

Based on a systemic approach, the fundamental attitude of narrative thinking and working as well as narrative methods are presented in all essential contexts of organisational consulting – from coaching to development and change processes.

Narrative organizational development – a consulting field with a future

For about 15 years, companies have been exploring storytelling for their communication. Currently they are making another discovery: the importance of stories for organizational development and for a company’s viability and survival. Nobel Prize winner Robert Shiller, for example, studies “narrative economics” (as per the title of his book from 2020) and economic sociologist Jens Beckert, Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, emphasises the importance of future stories for the competitiveness of companies. Therefore, a great demand for narrative organisational consultants and developers who work on a systemic basis is to be expected in the next few years.

Practical training with university certificate

The training will consist of 11 digital zoom sessions (4 hours each). Its successful completion is confirmed by a certificate from the Media University Stuttgart.

We see the training course as a “storylab”: All contents are taught in a practical way and can immediately be integrated into the participants’ concrete field of work.

Target group

The target group of the seminar includes consultants for organisations and management, organisational developers (internal and external), HR professionals and managers.