| Name of Book: | Tales For Change |  |
| Author: | Margaret Parkin | |
| Review By: | Melanie Andrews | |
| Title: | Executive Assistant | |
| Company: | Alternative Networks Ltd | |
| County: | London | |
| Rating: | Recommended |
As the title suggests, this book demonstrates how to prepare groups or individuals for any inevitable organisational change, through storytelling.
‘Tales for Change’ is aimed at senior or middle management, and provides the ‘storyteller’ with fifty different tales or parables, each with its own moral. The stories are essentially communication tools to help the manager/mentor pave the way for any kind of transition, be it a promotion or company restructure etc.
The book is divided into five sections, each dealing with a different type of change and a ‘coping strategy’. For example in the first section ‘Dealing with Change’, ‘The Mustard Seed’ demonstrates that change is inevitable and that the lesson that we all need to learn is acceptance. Other stories in other sections, such as ‘Heaven & Hell’ deal with perception, or prioritisation in the case of ‘Filling the Jar’ in the section entitled ‘Dealing with Stress’.
I felt that the book was very much a communication workbook, as each tale would require fluency in the narration, and therefore, preparation. An exercise was provided for each of the stories, which lends the book well to workshop sessions, as the exercises allow for interaction and different interpretations.
As most of us can still remember the fairy tales that we were told as children, and the messages that they instilled, I think that ‘Tales for Change’ is a useful tool for those preparing others to face a transition, and it reminds us, that whilst sometimes unsettling, not all change is bad.
Tales For Change By Margaret Parkin
Published by Kogan Page
ISBN 0 7494 4106 2
Price: £18.99
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