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The Industrial Science Blog: Complexity Science, Simulation, and Business
Monday, April 03, 2006
 
Telling Stories
In his book Blink, Malcom Gladwell talks about how top athletes such as Ted Williams and Andre Agassi describe their techniques. Being able to track the ball as it hits and leaves the bat or using the writst to roll the racket over the ball are what they attribute as their respective secrets.

The author continues by saying that both statements can be proven false. For Williams, the baseball is moving too fast to observe with the human eye ("it's a three-millisecond event"). For Agassi, computer digitized images show that his wrist is moving only an eighth of a degree at impact, and most of the wrist movement happens long after impact.

Gladwell concludes that "we have, as human beings, a storytelling problem." He doesn't deny the athletes' (or any other experts in his book) their abilities. But he does say that in many cases, even experts cannot accurately describe what makes them an expert. I believe that we as human beings like to tell stories. Stories make sense. Stories are easier to remember than technical specifics, disconnected details, and minute (but perhaps important) details. So how about the complex systems we live in? Without a cohesive narrative, many complex systems can seem like a large beast that obeys the will of no one but chaos.

We work with many folks who are the Williams or the Agassi's of their world. They are experts, often seeing things before the rest of us. Or perhaps they can execute excellence in a way that seems impossible. They, like the rest of us, like to tell stories. Their stories are sometimes very complex and may at times have built-in paradoxes.

And that seems to be a good space for us. We are model-builders, and our models seem to tell the story of our clients' complexities. Like all good stories, our clients strive to capture the imagination of their audience, to leave an impression long after the telling of the story.
- posted by hcpark @ 9:07 AM  
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