Neuroscience says we are wired for story. But our focus has been on using story as a communication strategy, and not on using it as an operational strategy. What if the structure of story was used to design the models that drive other topics, such as change, learning, and leadership?

This was the question explored by John Lewis in his book Story Thinking, which compares story structure to 30 of the most common models related to change and found that our institutional models break down because they do not align with our expectations of story. Organizations are always looking for better models to drive innovation, change, transparency, learning, and leadership. Yet we have overlooked story structure because we thought of story as just a communication strategy…until now.