I Am My Story: Changing Thinking and Behavior Through Personal Narrative

Abstract

In the late 90s there was a vogue for describing CEOs as storytellers. Their task was to tell the story of the organization firstly to the organization itself and secondly to the outside world. It was a process of invention, re-invention, and promotion. As a CEO who lived by narrative, this was a welcome development in realizing that beyond management speak the way we understood our lives was still simple and central. We told stories. In Beyond Depression, Christopher Dowrick (2004) offers a number of insights into the management of depression without medication. Personal narrative and attentive or active listening emerge as the key elements in effecting change. The emphasis is on creating a narrative that becomes the source of a solution and then becomes the solution itself.