Hello readers and welcome back the Educated Leadership blog!
This week we were privileged to watch a Ted Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
called, “The Danger of a Single Story” (2009). Ms. Adichie hails from Nigeria
and has gained acclaim as a novelist. She tells a story that takes us with her
from early childhood through her college years and into the present. Along the
way, she realizes how much influence the stories she has read have actually had
on her perceptions of others.
As a very young girl in Nigeria, Chimamanda read the books
that were available to her. They happened to be tales written in England and
the United States. When she began writing stories, around the time she was
seven, her stories focused on the characters she had read about. Caucasian kids
that played in the snow and drank ginger beer proliferated in her tales. The interesting
point was that she had never seen snow and had no idea what a ginger beer even
looked like. She didn’t know any other way to write, though.
Her first epiphany occurred when she was given some books by
authors from Nigeria and other African countries. For the first time, she
realized that people and topics with which she was familiar could be the
subject of literature. She looked back and realized the stories from her early
childhood were the first dangerous stories she had read. They became her perception
of the world, regardless of what she was experiencing. The new stories opened
her eyes to a broader existence.
She goes on to relate the interactions she has with her
college roommate at a school in the USA. It becomes apparent that the roommate
has been exposed to stories about Africa that we all of limited perspective.
Chimamanda fields questions about what her “tribal” music sounds like (she grew
up a city girl in Lagos) and has to dispel the idea that she may be unfamiliar
with a stove and other appliances. The roommate has fallen victim to a single
story.
Ms. Adichie goes on to describe other situations where the
story of a culture or people she has been exposed to predisposes her to a way
of thinking that is proven false upon further investigation. Even as an adult,
she gets tripped up by this phenomenon. It is a seductive trap into which we
can all fall.
Listening to the presentation, I was reminded of the idea of
‘cultural lenses’ that I learned about during Diversity and Inclusion training.
Cultural lenses are the experiences that we collect through the years that impact
the way we see the world. The lenses are powerful and can drive us to
assumptions. These assumptions are very open to the influence of stereotypes
that bolster them. The stories Ms. Adichie read and heard formed pictures of
the world for her. It wasn’t until she had other, contrary, experiences that
she began to realize her perceptions may not have been based upon complete
information.
Personally, I was impacted by this lecture because it made
me think about the stories I have clung to that may not give the full picture
of a situation. Upon introspection, I could identify a couple right of the bat.
The first was about another work group in my building with whom my team and I
are having a difficult time working. I realized I need to get more information about
issues that are impacting them and to try and learn what cultural lenses may be
impacting them and their ability to cooperate.
The US Presidential campaigns jumped to mind, as well. The
candidates push their story and their campaign managers ensure their candidates
version of the truth gets aired as much as possible. They are banking on the
hope we’ll all believe the story they are telling and not ask questions. The media
has become the automaton of the political parties, broadcasting whatever is
said in order to get ratings. The result is a public that epitomizes being the
victim of a single story.
Interestingly, we also learned about the technique of
telling a springboard story this week. The springboard is used to provide
leadership and vision to a group that a speaker wishes to influence into action
or change. (Denning, 2011, p. 60) The springboard, like many kinds of stories,
could be an example of the single story about which Ms. Adichie warns us. As
leaders, we can prevent that from being the case by authoring stories that provide
more than one perspective as springboards. By definition, a springboard is told
from the point of view of one protagonist (Denning, 2011, p. 68-69). However,
the protagonist can exhibit and extol more than one perspective. That clarity
may work to illustrate the breadth of knowledge of the protagonist, possibly eliciting
a stronger feeling of trust from the audience.
If you get the chance, I hope you can watch the video. I
have posted the link below.
I showed it to my team today. I will close with the
same question with which I closed our meeting, “What single story are you
influenced by?”
Until next week….
Adichie, C. N. (2009).
The Danger of a Single Story, Ted Global.
Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Story
Telling - Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. San
Francisco, CA, Josey-Bass.
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