Danger of Stories

A521.2.3.RB

View the TED video Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story (Links to an external site.). Adichie uses several episodes from her own life's story to deliver her powerful message. Use your blog to reflect on Adichie's message. How do you view her message in terms of what you have learned in this module?

Chimanmada Adichie delivered an important and powerful message in her TED discussion The danger of a single story. She highlights her experiences growing up reading American and British stories and how they influenced her perception when writing and drawing her story characters that were represented as foreigners that were un-relatable. “Because all I had read were book in which characters were foreigners, I had become convinced that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in them and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify” (Adichie, 2009).

Adichie provided an example of when she turned eight and her family employed a new house boy that came from a nearby village and was considered poor. Through the stories of her mother that highlighted their house boy’s poverty, Adichie began “pity” the boy’s family and was taken back when her and her mother visited the house boy’s family and saw a “beautify patterned basket” that the boy’s bother had made. Her perception and feeling of “pit” did not allow her to imagine that the “pitied” was capable of making such things. “I was startled; it had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were. So it had become impossible for me see them as anything but poor” (Adichie, 2009).

Adichie continued to provide other personal example as in which perception was shaped by singular stories such as her interaction with her roommate in college in the US and when she traveled to Mexico. Both examples highlight the “perception is reality” when created by a single story.

Reflecting on Adichie’s powerful message, I recalled a similar situation when I was deployed to Iraqi as a Police Transition Team leader responsible for training Iraqi police. During my this deployment, I distinctly remember hearing many stories about the Iraqi social and cultural differences that made them ineffective and by American standards, lazy. I made little effort or investment to know more about the rich history and cultural background about the Iraqi people because “we were going to properly train and shape their security forces.” Needless to say, with a narrow perception, frustration and sometime contempt occurred. It wasn’t until after I came home and read The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick, that I knew my approach was way off. Although The Ugly American has had countless book reviews and critiques about its link to communism and political overtone; after reading this book, I felt a spotlight placed on me and my previous methods as arrogant and ignorant. This was a difficult “pill” to swallow, but I was forced to see how a stereotype of another culture clearly affected my approach and in some cases, ineffectiveness. “The single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (Adichie, 2009). During my next deployment to Iraq, I made a significant effort to learn more about the Iraqi culture and those that I worked with. I attempted to demonstrated my human compassion by learning enough Arabic to have a simple conversation with my Iraqi counter parts. They in turn were more accepting and willing to develop a partner relationship, thus increasing my effectiveness.

The power of stories is vital in creating a connection and inspiring others; and at the same time, potentially disastrous when formulated in a singular fashion as my previous example demonstrated. Denning (2011) notes the awesome positive nature a story has he discusses the “springboard story.” “That's because a springboard story performs the most useful thing a leader can do: communicate a complex new idea and inspire action to implement it” (Denning, 2011). As leaders, not only is it important to tell the right story correctly, but to do so holistically and prevent a singular perception that would limit others interactions, growth and effectiveness.

References

Adichie, C. (2009). The danger of a single story. TEDGlobal. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story#t-796917

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership). Wiley. Kindle Edition.