Competencies and Skills

Introduction

A careful analysis of the competencies and skills that support the practice of storytelling is necessary to understand how storytelling informs knowledge management. Storytelling is about the ability to weave a narrative that accomplishes a goal for an audience. Applied to knowledge management, storytelling is about the use of stories to transfer and apply knowledge in the workflow. This requires a complex set of competencies that span socio-communicative practices involving verbal and non-verbal skills, cultural aptitude, and organizational acumen. Those competencies, which will be discussed in the next chapters, can be grouped in three areas:

• Rhetorical competencies and skills

  These refer to the discursive skills needed to craft a story that will persuade an audience to take a particular action or make a decision. More specifically, rhetorical competencies refer to the skills required to craft stories that shine a light on knowledge, which can be shared or integrated into the workplace.

• Performative competencies and skills

  These refer to the practical use of rhetorical principles to deliver the stories and connect with an audience. They provide the skills that allow the storyteller to bring the story to life.

• Ethnographic competencies and skills

  These refer to the application of ethnographic methodology to develop and sustain storytelling practices that build community and articulate cultural norms in an organization.