Notes from Niles, our CEO
On Sundays in San Francisco, I often find myself heading to The Interval, which is an interesting bar and cafe developed by the Long Now Foundation. It’s there I find space to reflect and plan outside of the busy workweek. Upon entering, I’m greeted by a 10,000 year clock and in that second everything is put into perspective. "Right now" becomes filled with a larger sense of the past as well the possibilities of the future.
Since people started forming tribes and collective groups, they’ve used symbols and stories to help each other think beyond the present moment. Knowledge has been passed down from cave paintings on how to hunt and farm and those instincts later translated into written manuals, manifestos, and movies. This heritage of “wisdom sharing” continues to transform us and we are constantly finding better ways to remind ourselves about who we are, where we’re going and what we need. Our team at Enwoven works each day to imagine and build better ways to pass down the most critical stories and knowledge for thousands of people within many organizations.
Within the Inspire section of our newsletter, we will continue to share the research that informs our product as we pursue this greater vision. Most recently we’ve been studying the research of Uri Hasson at Princeton, who has shown us how storytelling creates “neural coupling” (i.e. “mind-melding”) between speaker and listeners linking similar portions of their brain. The research and writings of Prof. Paul Zak uncovers how engaging stories biologically affect us as neurochemicals like Oxytocin are released facilitating group connection and cooperation. All of this research drives us here at Enwoven as we ask ourselves how can we gather and present knowledge in the most powerful way possible.
I want to thank each of our incredible customers and their work on our Customer Advisory Board. A special thanks this month to Arthur Orduna, the Chief Innovation Officer at Avis Budget Group. Avis Budget is our spotlight customer, and we are excited about how they are finding new ways of bringing storytelling, technology, and organizational behavior together. We have been fortunate to work with many amazing Fortune 500 companies, not as vendors, but as partners in reimagining how our organizations can become more connected, more productive, and more human. We look forward to sharing your stories and our inspirations as we continue to grow!
Photo: The Interval at Long Now by Christopher Michel
