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we can think differently but, when we leave home, we have to
watch our backs and take care of ourselves.
But notice a feature of this way of thinking. It is basically
black and white. It draws sharp lines: between personal life
and work life, between selfishness and altruism, between
what you get and what others get. This binary world is deeply
at odds with the perspective of the fourth question. A clear
implication of the African aphorism is that, by pursuing the
interests of others, we pursue our own interests, because all
these interests are so tightly meshed. And this isn’t because
we are continuously contracting with each other and making
a long series of deals that serve our interests. It is because our
human fates are joined in profound ways.
Think, for example, about members of families or mem-
bers of military units that have seen combat. In these cases,
“we” is much more than a collection of individuals. Each
individual’s identity is defined, in part, by membership in
the group. Hence, what is best for each individual is, in part,
what is best for everyone. In many cases, family members and
soldiers can’t answer the question, What should I do? unless
they also answer the question, What should we do?
This perspective suggests that managers faced with hard
decisions should be careful not to view their situation solely
in simplistic terms that assumes their gain is another’s loss
and vice versa. Aaron Feuerstein had a personal commitment
to his workers and their communities; he wasn’t calculating
when and what he would gain from them. And hardly any-
one would want Jim Mullen at Biogen, or anyone else in a
comparable position of trust and power, to be calculating per-
sonal gain or organizational gain at the expense of the lives
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111
and health of others. Our society depends critically on lead-
ers who understand that we all share common interests—in
civility, trust, openness, and a commitment to social good—
and all benefit from common endeavors to support these
aims and interests, even though none of us can calculate our
personal sliver of gain from these social investments.
Classical Chinese philosophy emphasizes yin and yang. It
suggests that, at the deeper levels of individual and social
complexity, important realities are interdependent, commin-
gled, joint, and connected. In other words, what matters for
each of us is what matters for all of us. This suggests that
managers faced with hard problems need to step back and
spend some time asking what higher, broader purposes are
at stake in their decision. This may not, in the end, be the
decisive factor in a decision, but it can reveal facets of a sit-
uation that are long-term, subtle, and important. These fac-
ets can easily be overlooked by managers trained to process
every problem through the standard analytical techniques,
and a good way to reduce this risk is by relying on an age-old
way of understanding reality: by thinking in terms of stories,
rather than data and analysis.
Reflect on Your Organization’s Story
Most organizations today have credos and mission statements.
Unfortunately, these are often lifeless documents, decorating
walls or embalmed under glass. Nevertheless, for a manager
facing a hard problem, a mission statement or credo is usu-
ally worth a look. It can serve as a reminder of the larger
aims to which the organization has committed itself. And in
some cases, credos and mission statements can be particularly
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112
valuable—if they have been created recently or tested recently
and reflect serious attention and real commitment. But it is
also important to look more broadly and, in particular, to
understand the stories that reveal the norms, values, and rela-
tionships that define your organization.
For millennia, humanity has relied on stories as the most
powerful way to understand and express who “we” are.
And almost everyone still enjoys stories today. But do stories
matter in organizations? We no longer forage and hunt and
live around campfires or huddled in caves. Maybe stories
are just relics: charming, old-fashioned, and roundabout
ways of conveying what should be stated clearly and suc-
cinctly. We work in modern, fast-paced, technology-driven
organizations. Instead of telling a story, why not just get to
the point?
There are several answers to this question, and they all
help explain the practical value of the fourth enduring ques-
tion. One answer is that stories convey truths more powerfully
than propositions. They stick in ways that bullet points don’t
and can’t. Stories engage, not just our minds, but our hearts
and spirits. They can resonate with our personal experiences,
which makes their underlying messages vivid and real. Stories
also give us a sense of getting down to the basics—which is the
idea behind the classic view, sometimes attributed to Aristotle,
that history tells us what happened and literature tells us what
happens.
25
The idea that stories communicate in distinctive, power-
ful ways is another example of striking convergence between
contemporary social science and ancient wisdom and
insights. Jerome Bruner, one of the most important cognitive
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Who Are We?
113
psychologists of the twentieth century, has long argued that
our minds have evolved to frame and grasp reality in two
different ways. One is propositional and depends on clarity,
logic, and formal structure. The other is narrative—in other
words, story-based. Bruner, along with scholars in a wide
range of fields, such as law, anthropology, and cognitive sci-
ence, believes that much of what we view as objective real-
ity consists of narratives or stories that are widely accepted
within groups or entire cultures.
26
Adrienne Rich, a contemporary poet, wrote, “The story
of our lives becomes our lives.”
27
This observation applies
to organizations as well. In many organizations today, the
real values and norms are expressed in stories. Sometimes
they describe what the founders did, how they thought,
what they sacrificed, and what they fought for. Other sto-
ries describe difficult moments, crises, or critical decisions
in which an organization’s leaders, past or present, had to
make choices that revealed what they most cared about.
Above all, these stories say what the organization is really
committed to and the larger purpose it aims to serve. In
short, the answer to the fourth humanist question—Who
are we?—often consists of stories that describe what
“we” have done in critical moments and why “we” did it.
These are typically stories of commitment, struggle, and
purpose.
This remains true today. Human nature hasn’t changed
during the recent centuries of stunning technological
advances. We remain the creatures we have always been.
This is why every organization has stories—even small
organizations, like departments and work teams, and new
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114
organizations, like entrepreneurial ventures. It is also why it
is valuable, for highly practical reasons, to understand what
these stories are when you face a gray area problem.
Recall Becky Friedman’s situation. She faced the tricky
problem of dealing with an employee who had strong sup-
port from her bosses but was failing to do his job. Friedman
was new to her company. The company, an entrepreneurial
venture, was only a few years old, and the “organization” in
which she worked was the team of fourteen people she headed.
Nevertheless, there were two narratives that helped Friedman
understand the full dimensions of the situation she faced.
One story described her long slog as a woman in com-
puter science. Friedman had always been an outsider. Even
though she was a talented programmer, she also understood,
from her undergraduate education and her work experience,
what it was like to be marginalized socially—which was
Terry Fletcher’s situation on her team. He wasn’t making
the grade, he knew it, and he knew that almost everyone
else knew it. At the same time, Friedman had another story
in mind. It described what the rest of her team, aside from
Fletcher, understood and really cared about: exceptional pro-
fessional performance. Her team consistently overachieved
on the company’s performance metrics, as a result of talent
and long hours of work. She felt proud of this accomplish-
ment, and so did the members of her team. Their story
described their week-by-week and month-by-month efforts,
working hard and smart, to achieve well-earned organiza-
tional stardom.
Friedman understood the larger context of the Terry
Fletcher situation, and this helped her handle it effectively.
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