We were delighted when Yiannis Gabriel joined us for the ‘Food for Thought’ lunchtime talk series in January bringing with him questions for our consideration.

• How much do we learn by sharing stories?
• How reliable are stories as a means of sharing knowledge?
• How can we learn from the stories of others?

These resulted in an insightful and conversational lunchtime talk bringing our attention to the great deal of storytelling which takes place in and around organisations; to stories as unreliable and often exaggerating or distorting facts for effect. In this presentation, Yiannis also examined where stories draw their extraordinary strength in an era of information overload and assessed some of their strengths and weaknesses as a means of learning in different communities of practice.

Talk

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Yiannis Gabriel is Professor of Organisational Theory at Bath University. Yiannis is known for his work into organisational narratives, leadership, management learning and the politics of contemporary consumerism. He is Senior Editor of Organisation Studies and also blogs in a personal capacity. His enduring fascination as a researcher lies in the unmanageable qualities of life in and out of organisations. Yiannis was Associate Editor of Human Relations for a number of years and a trustee of the Tavistock Institute.

Yiannis Gabriel’s talk: Storytelling as sense-saviour in an era of information overload is part of the Tavistock Institute’s Food for Thought series.