Tales of Ordinary Leadership. A Feminist Approach to Experiential Learning

Abstract

Feminist practice and theory have always conferred value on narrative knowledge produ- ced through storytelling, mainly because of its ability to stimulate reflexive thought. In our contribution we intend to present and discuss a training methodology founded on memory work and designed to stimulate an individual and group reworking of the leadership dimen- sion, and of the gender and leadership relationship. We will describe a narrative workshop conducted with groups of women working in managerial positions and based on the pers- pective of workplace learning through experiential reflexivity. The narrative methodology proved to be a particularly effective tool: it gave the participants a chance to conduct retros- pective analysis of their past work experiences (individual and organizational), and it gene- rated —due to the interaction with other stories (those furnished in the training activity and those provided by other trainees)— different interpretative perspectives and new mea- ning configurations in order to face working life and organizational dynamics.