From Spoke to Hub: Transforming Organizational Vision and Strategy With Story and Visual Art

This article reports on a case study at an inner-city nonprofit service agency that inquired into the ways integration of storytelling and visual art as a method of adult learning and way of knowing might influence the process of strategic visioning and planning in a nonprofit organization. The case study focuses on data collected through interviews and observation in the context of an action research project, with an aim of better understanding the influence of presentational ways of knowing and learning on transformative learning at the organizational level. Findings of this case study point toward the possibility of such transformation, in particular a shift in meaning perspective manifested at the level of organizational vision and strategy that can affect the organization’s work all the way down to the operational level. Project background, process, and findings are discussed, followed by implications for practice.