“Every organization is built upon ‘an underlying systems story.’ He points out that ‘this is not a belief system. It is the continually repeated life story that determines how an organization feels, thinks, and thus acts. This systems story determines the way an organization behaves, no matter how the organizational chart is drawn. It’s the primary template that shapes all other things. Restructure the organization and leave the system story in place, and nothing changes within the organization. It’s futile trying to revitalize the church, or a denomination, without first changing the system.’ Drilling down into this systems story — the paradigm, or mode of church — is, Easum suggests, one of the keys to change and constant innovation.”
Bill Easum as quoted by Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways
Much of the struggle in corporate and personal life is in simply trying to understand, “Where is this story going?”
3 responses to “On Systems and Story”
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Tried to e-mail you, but the Earthlink account bounced back. Tell me about that book you quoted from on the blog. It is articulates well something I have been struggling to define of late.
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I am curious as to how DDS would apply Easum’s idea to my own recent musings! And also how this would flesh out in my own current church where we are trying to somewhat redefine ourselves.
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Gregoire, the question is how would you tell the story of how things work at your current church. I would say the story changed significantly when you moved from the Salvation Army building to the school n’est-ce-pas?
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Backward Mutters 
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