January issue of the "Harvard Business Review": How storytelling makes change easier

Telling good stories is essential to making smooth transitions in life, say Herminia Ibarra, a professor of organizational behavior at the European Institute of Business Administration, in France, and Kent Lineback, a storytelling coach.

Change is unsettling, in part because major transitions, like job changes, can make us feel that we have "lost the narrative thread" of our lives, they write. At those times, it is important to tell stories about our lives that are rooted in who we are, they say.

"A coherent life story is one that suggests what we all want to believe of ourselves and those we help or hire -- that our lives are series of unfolding, linked events that make sense," they write. "In other words, the past is related to the present, and from that trajectory, we can glimpse our future."

"We use stories to reinvent ourselves," they write. And the process of constructing a story can help us make sense of the past. Turning points, they say, "tend to be much more obvious in the telling than in the living."

The article, "What's Your Story?," is part of a special issue on "managing yourself" and may be purchased online. Information about the magazine is available at http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/