Originally posted 05-Dec-24
John Lewis is Chief Story Thinker, Owner, and CKO at Explanation Age LLC. He is a consultant, speaker, author, and coach on knowledge management, organizational learning, leadership, and story thinking.
His research interests are in cognitive psychology, educational psychology, and organizational psychology.
John is the former Chief Knowledge Officer at SearchBlox Software, Inc. He helps knowledge-driven organizations accelerate learning and transformational change. John has experience in change management strategies, specifically related to transactional leadership requirements, human capital requirements including innovation and skills training, knowledge management requirements for collaboration and self-service operations, and end-user experience for customers and associates.
Here are definitions for five of John’s specialties:
- Change Management: Developing a planned approach to change in an organization to address anticipated obstacles and to ensure successful adoption.
- Collaboration: Interacting with peers and colleagues to exchange ideas, share experiences, work together on projects, and solve problems.
- Innovation: The process by which an idea is translated into a good or service for which people will pay.
- Organizational Learning: The capacity of the organization to acquire the knowledge necessary to survive and compete in its environment.
- Story Thinking: Storytelling is based on a sensemaking pattern for how we should talk, but Story Thinking is based on this sensemaking pattern for how we should work. Based on neuroscience, Story Thinking recognizes that everything is in a story (unlike storytelling, which communicates only about the past and envisions the future). It provides an approach to better execute the innate lesson cycle. Story Thinking as an operational concept provides new ways to identify innovative ideas and facilitate change and can lead to transformational leadership results through collaboration.
For more about John, see Profiles in Knowledge. John created the following content. I have curated it to represent his contributions to the field.
Books by John Lewis
The Explanation Age: Inspiring Visualizations of the New Learning Organization
Story Thinking: Transforming Organizations for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The Intelligent Social Change Journey: Foundation for the Possibilities that are YOU!
The Symbiotic Table of Knowledge
What are the fundamental types of questions that humans ask?
What are the fundamental types of answers that humans expect?
Can we produce a table from these fundamental questions and answers?
YES! The Symbiotic Table of Knowledge:
8 Degrees of Reason
To address reflective communication, collaborative decision making, and conflict resolution, we need to be able to accurately communicate the reasons behind our learnings and explanations. Behind every explanation ever given, there are only eight basic types of reasons. Answers range from “because I said so” to “because the empirical evidence supports the hypothesis,” or even “because I didn’t think to ask.”
As “mental misers,” we quench curiosity by accepting the reason with the least level of effort (cognitive demand) required. So the lower degrees are more efficient than higher degrees. For example, “because I wanted to” (first degree) is a reason that takes less effort than “because the hypothesis was confirmed” (seventh degree).
Story Thinking Cycle™ (Innate Lesson Cycle)
6 Phases of ADIIEA
This cycle is the mind’s natural model for change and learning and is formed by the relationship of our workability beliefs (Does Work, Won’t Work, and Could Work) and our response modes (Reactive, Reflective, and Questioning). And this cycle contains six phases: Automation, Disruption, Investigation, Ideation, Expectation, and Affirmation, or simply called ADIIEA (pronounced uh-dee-uh). The location of each phase is like working against gravity; we tend to rest at the bottom and operate in automation, without much thought. This cycle is at play within every business project, every classroom lesson, and even for how a bill becomes a law.
Understanding this cycle allows us to evaluate each individual phase, and holistically manage an organization’s ability to prepare, innovate, change, and perform. And it allows us to connect the now-separate functions of Idea Management, Risk Management, and Operations Management:
- Automation is where we manage proficiency through Operations Management and distinguish between simplicity and elegance.
- Disruption is where we manage preparedness through Risk Management, for problems as well as opportunities.
- Investigation is where we manage impartial analysis through Investigation Management, for inspections and explorations.
- Ideation is where we manage constructive ideas through Idea Management and seek both derivations and innovations.
- Expectation is where we manage realistic goals through Change Management, and act on what we put our hope and faith in.
- Affirmation is where we manage certainty through Quality and Assurance Management and distinguish between knowing and trusting.
Methods from the last age were linear and prescriptive: Do-These-Steps-In-This-Order. ADIIEA is a method that is cyclic and descriptive. It provides the phases of thinking through a lesson, which allows for “rocking” between phases, but it begins and ends in our most natural state: automation.
