Stored Stories: How Body-Based Work Changes Old Narratives

This is a presentation made at the 8th Art of Management and Organization Conference (1st - 4th September 2016) at IEDC-Bled School of Management, Slovenia: Empowering the Intangible.

Work in diverse global organizations has demonstrated how conflict is carried in our bodies, and documented multiple ways that curating and deepening physical wisdom is vital in shifting workplace conflict. Our research explores how emotional and physical work can help shift rigid stories. As narratives become more nuanced, conflict can be transformed—literally released from physical tissues. Increased physical suppleness yields more constructive choices about our internal and shared stories; we literally learn how to extend mobility into narrative realms. In addition, a physical focus imports sensory, aesthetic vocabularies into organizational settings, resourcing richer engagement.

This presentation focuses on how kinaesthetic intelligence enhances organizational effectiveness, both individual and collective, yielding increased:

• proprioception and awareness of self and others;

• capacity to notice and regulate emotions;

• mobility in the midst of impasse;

• abilities to work effectively across cultures and with worldview differences;

• possibilities for surfacing and processing charged memories;

• understandings of subtle nuances and interactional textures that signal shifts;

• expertise in process designs that foster health; and

• creativity in conflict.