7

War Stories and Parables

From parables to fables to scripture, we think in terms of stories to explain our world. It’s as though we can’t think of ourselves without them. (Margaret Anne Doody, Professor of Literature, University of Notre Dame)

Let’s talk about stories and their use in learning. In addition to providing a way to think about ourselves, and to give a sense of meaning to life, there are at least five other separate and distinct purposes that stories can serve in learning situations and serious games. Stories can serve as memory aids. They can function as examples of principles and behaviors that are too complex to be communicated by simple lists of descriptors. They can provide a context in which to introduce participants to other cultures and aid in that understanding. They can immerse learners in a complex experience and make them familiar with the kinds of stress and other difficulties they will face in that world. And they can be mechanisms for identifying the principles of correct performance. There are certain categories of subject matter that lend themselves to story-based instruction. These include subject matter relating to values, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, and principles for operating in very dangerous environments.

STORIES AS MEMORY AIDS

If you wanted to teach your child the very simple concept of perseverance, you could lecture them on staying with a plan. You could dig up that classic old Disney song, “Stick-to-it-ivity” (from the film So Dear to My Heart). Or you could tell them a fable about a very fast animal like a rabbit that decided to challenge a slow turtle in a race, and how the turtle wins because slow and steady wins the race.

If you wanted to make a point about racial and religious tolerance you could likewise sing songs, recite poetry, or tell the very famous story of the man who was traveling along a road when he was attacked by thieves. They took everything he had, beat him, and left him for dead. In that story he tried in vain to get help from passing doctors and priests, but they ignored him. It wasn’t until another man came by that our hero was rescued. That other man was from an ethnic group that was despised by the poor battered man and his clan. And yet the despised man carried our hero to the nearest town and paid for all his care until he was well. That despised man became an object lesson in tolerance and he taught the poor beaten man and everyone else that hears the parable that there are Good Samaritans in the world and it doesn’t matter what ethnic or religious background they are.

Bottom line? If you want to teach a valuable lesson, make up a story that conveys your message, and then fill it with interesting characters and memorable events.

STORIES THAT SERVE AS EXAMPLES OF COMPLEX BEHAVIORS

We’ve all heard the term “war stories.” The Army itself uses war stories as a unique tool in leadership training. In an introduction to the textbook 66 Stories of Battle Command, which is used at the US Army Command College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, General Tommy Franks writes:

Years ago as a young officer on the verge of entering my first war, I knew an older soldier, a veteran of the Korean War. I listened to many stories told by this soldier, and embedded in those stories were lessons arising from the experience of combat. These were real stories of decision and the emotions surrounding them, set in actual wartime situations, not merely precepts in a leadership manual. Later, facing the challenges of combat, I recalled those lessons and the stories that had made them memorable. These war stories have been an important and unmistakable part of my preparation for combat.

This book (66 Stories of Battle Command) contains stories from field and general officers commanding in training exercises. In their stories they describe their thoughts, their actions, their successes and especially their mistakes. In each story the commander tells how he learned an important lesson in battle command and he identifies the lesson. Their willingness to share is striking from every contributor.

Few of these (stories) are about tactical maneuvers and doctrinal principles. Instead, they are stories of friction and confusion, friction generated by the challenging task of orchestrating the actions of a large complex force to gain and maintain the initiative. This, under the pressure of a hostile environment, time and a wily punishing (opponent) who knew the habits of our commanders as well as they know the terrain. And they are stories about growth as the commanders strengthen their intuitive feel for battle command, a process achieved through study, practice, interpreted experience and the observations and experiences of others.

Command under fire is as complex a behavior as there can be. Harsh reality has taught the US military that the challenging task of orchestrating the actions of a large and complex force is one that benefits from the personal perspectives of the soldiers who lived through it. These perspectives illustrate the fog of war in which the learners will soon be operating and they provide a mental reference for soldiers in similar circumstances.

It is also important to understand that these same principles described as working for the military also apply to any individual or organization engaged in complex behaviors. Rescuers, firefighters, police officers, medical teams, athletic teams, teams of just about any kind of skill or profession, all need the kind of awareness that stories are best at conveying.

STORIES THAT PORTRAY OTHER CULTURES AND BUILD CULTURAL AWARENESS

Cultural awareness is a complex behavior, one that is broken out separately here because it is so important and so unique. It requires a break from traditional “us/them thinking” which has become ingrained in our natures throughout our violent history and pre-history. The key to cultural awareness is to recognize the commonalities in all humanity but also to understand and value the differences. In a world where cultural awareness is growing more important every day, not only for the US military but also for corporations and even individuals, stories can add great benefits to learning. Stories provide the context and setting through which to present the familiar and unfamiliar elements of culture. They introduce us to characters who we can get to know, understand, and with whom we can empathize. If you are training soldiers who face assignments in foreign lands, personnel departments in corporations or businesses, or individuals who must learn to work and live with fellows from entirely different cultures, stories can be the tool through which you can build understanding.

STORIES FOR STRESS-EXPOSURE TRAINING

Really great skills training will not be of any value if the performance that is taught cannot be transferred onto the job site in the real world. There are several reasons why the transfer may not take place, but perhaps the most critical is the presence of stress and complexity in the real world environment. It is one thing to be able to do something in the antiseptic environment of practice, another to be able to do it on the job.

In a chapter-length discussion on stress exposure training, James E. Driscoll and Joan H. Johnston (1998) present a case for a training system that enables performers to maintain effective performance under stress. There are three steps to the model: (1) teach the performance; (2) enable the performers to transfer the correct performance to the real world by injecting stress into the practice experience; and (3) build performer confidence. This is done gradually so that the performer learns to gain familiarity with the stress environment and develop techniques for maintaining a high level of performance in the face of that stress.

In complex command and control situations as well as in management, one element in the stress situation is the confusion that swirls around the decision maker, causing distraction and even the paralysis of inaction. Another element is an awareness of the risks and dangers and complex consequences of actions. In other words, knowing the big picture can be stress inducing. Consequences, personalities, political complications, personal goals, individual conflicts, these are all the stuff that stories are made of. Building story elements into “stress exposure training” can strengthen it, make it more memorable and more effective.

STORIES TO IDENTIFY CORRECT PERFORMANCE THROUGH TACIT KNOWLEDGE

What Tommy Franks alluded to in his description of war stories and the benefit that they can provide to learners, is something called tacit knowledge. Sternberg’s Practical Intelligence in Everyday Life identifies tacit leadership knowledge as “that which is based on personal experience, not well supported by formal training or doctrine, expressed in some form of action and pertaining to intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of leadership rather than the technical aspects of job performance.”

By interviewing leaders and collecting anecdotes about correct performance it is possible to identify this tacit knowledge. Once the anecdotes are collected they can be boiled down into the specific behaviors to be taught, and then reconstructed into new stories that are perhaps more relevant to the exact task at hand. The critical point here is that in addition to providing good ways to teach skills, listening to stories from experienced practitioners is a good way to figure out what the skills actually are. This whole concept and its specific application to the creation of serious games will be explored in the next chapter where we will begin setting down some formulas and rules for building learning objectives out of tacit knowledge on our way to constructing story-based simulations.

SUMMARY

We have reviewed the most clear cut roles for stories in serious games:

It is important to note that the definition of story that we have been using throughout this book and the kinds of requirements that we say are necessary to create a good story, do not go away just because the story is serving educational purposes. In all cases, including item 5, stories still require the conflict and structure that allow them to speak to all of us in a compelling way.