Integral Strategy 133
benefit from being connected to the kinds of questions that ordinary experience
carries with it to test its own commitments. Just as we hope to conceptualize
and systematize a method of leadership that is already at work in a good strategy
process, so it is worthwhile to examine briefly the ways that we bring normative
expectations to the narratives of our organizations.
We should be assured that the stories of identity that we tell and are told are
accurate and plausibly reflect the facts of history and the truth of circumstances.
We know that legends and exaggeration are the stuff of stories, but we do not want
to deceive in what we say or be deceived in what we hear. Stories must as well be
authentic and reflect the meaning of events as they are owned and lived transpar-
ently by the participants. As we revise and reinterpret stories, we must provide
evidence for our arguments and not manipulate the audience. Although not a
matter of logic or deductive thinking, stories have to have an inner consistency
to be persuasive and motivational. To be consistent, stories inspire action, not
just talk; persistent goals rather than expedient ones; and steady focus rather than
shifting enthusiasms. Coherence is another test for our narratives, for without it
we cannot relate different aspects of the story to each other and see various themes
as connected in a broader integration of values and beliefs. We also ask that our
collegiate stories be comprehensive in relating the meaning of local commitments
to the wider world of fundamental social and educational values, to important
emerging realities, and to the cause of education as a form of human transforma-
tion, which has its own wider narrative. Parochial and defensive stories, or those
that rigidly worship the past, are products of a flawed imagination that will not
be adequate guides to the future. And so it goes. By consistently emphasizing
questions that have normative force, we ask that our narratives present their
credentials. A discipline of leadership has distinctive forms of evidence, but it
has them nonetheless.
NOTE
- It is beyond anyone’s ability to be familiar with and document the massive literature
on narratives and stories in various fields. Beyond the references in the chapter, I have
been especially influenced by the work of H. Richard Niebuhr (1941, 1963), Paul Ricoeur
(1984–1986), and Robert Coles (1989). For useful summaries, see Polkinghorne (1988)
and Clandinin and Connelly (2000).