"The Danger of a Single Story"

The concept and the power of "The Story" is a central feature in coaching. I've made numerous references to people's stories in this blog -- how all of us create stories or narratives to make sense of our situations or environments, or the stories we carry from our childhoods or past experiences.

Recently, a friend shared a video with me that gave me a new perspective on the power and the danger of our stories, and the global implications of when we insist on sticking with a familiar story.

This summer, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivered a TED lecture about the Danger of a Single Story.(If you are not familiar with TED, you need to check it out. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, features short lectures by some of the most creative thinkers in the world, in all kinds of disciplines. The label: "Ideas Worth Spreading.")

On the surface, Adichie's lecture discusses the "single story" of Africa; the limited perspective in the Western World about the mosaic of Africa and its multiple cultures and peoples. Adichie is the child of two college professors, yet her college roommate in America initially believed her to live in some sort of rural hut. Adichie acknowledges her own experience with the Single Story, as applied to the rural domestic help who worked in her parents home.

As I listened to Adichie, I thought again how often the "single story" is applied in our individual workplaces, families and identities. If your personal workplace "story" is of you as the "wunderkind," how will you see yourself as time passes? If your "story" for your supervisor is as a clueless idiot, can you recognize when he or she has a great idea?

Here's the link. It's worth a listen: