ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to show how pragmatist storytelling can develop better management praxis. The problem is that there is a widespread simplistic storytelling praxis called the “elevator pitch” and a marketing practice called “storytelling branding” that are ignorant of the issues involved in organizational complexity, adaptation, and change. If you use a simplistic elevator pitch, with those beginning, middle, end (BME narrative) structures and forms, you leave out the change, complexity, and competitive dynamics. If your organization brands its storytelling into one overarching BME narrative, with its simple tag line, then how do you adapt and change in a dynamic world? Simpleton storytelling practices are wildly popular in management and consulting circles. In this chapter I assert that much of the mainstream storytelling consulting praxis is too over-simplistic to adequately predict the outcome pattern of observed effects in a complex changing environment. Meanwhile, the complex storytelling praxis that is about dealing with many voices (polyphony) in developing more democratic storytelling processes, and may well explain more of the variance in outcome or performance patterns, goes begging. The good news is that there are many examples of pragmatic storytelling praxis in use by organizations.
