ZCOPE Blog

Storytelling in project management: the right perspective

I’m a fan of storytelling. It’s so much more than only enjoying a well told story.

In private life I love to read historical novels because they tell you a lot about former living conditions and it’s easy to remember the year dates. You learn without being forced to force naked facts into your brain (and I know what I’m telling about, I studied history).

As I learned some time ago – there’s a storytelling in the professional life as well – especially in my section, the project management. One blog I really like to read is „Projektgeschichten“ (project stories. Sorry, it’s in German only) by Sigrid Hauer.

One of the stories is about the right perspective: How can we divide chances from problems? By being an eagle and not a chicken:

• The chicken knows its chicken run. But it can’t see beyond the fence and so all things from outside seem dangerous, risky – they are problems.
• The eagle sees the chicken run from a distance and knows much earlier what comes up. Being far away may prevent a direct action, but it helps to better evaluate the situation.

Sometimes we’re chickens, sometimes we’re eagles. The most important thing is to be able to change our perspective when we have to.