ABSTRACT
This paper explores the power of stories and how they can give voice to the unheard. The first part of the paper consists of a story. The fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood has been rewritten from the wolf’s perspective. The wolf has been a silent voice in the fairy tale for a longtime. Writing the story from his perspective makes it easier to understand his actions and identify with him. The second part of the paper is an explanatory section, which describes how the story of Little Red Riding Hood can be seen as a metaphor for discourse and hidden power relations. Often in organisations, in communities, and in societies there are voices present that are not being heard. lt is hard to pay attention to these voices because they are so difficult to hear, even when they speak. Other voices are louder, more familiar or just the majority. lt is argued that ‘sacred stories’ are an important cause of exclusion and, especially in an organisation that wants to be a learning organisation, we should pay attention to silent voices instead of overruling them. Silent voices have a different perspective, which might help discover organisational blind spots. But in order to look beyond our sacred stories, we need to look for other means than the obvious. Fiction could be one of those means, being a silent voice within the dominant discourses of social science itself.
