| This dissertation details the development of practical expert theory and its subsequent applications to the corporate world in present and future time. It describes an exploratory storytelling inquiry conducted in an Olympic elite environment to glean insightful perceptions from elite athletes. It builds on more than fifteen years of research and study on individuals that hold the title of experts specifically in USA Olympic Teams. Based on the assumption that expert human systems are complex and adaptive, it examines patterns and themes in human interaction as they manifest themselves through storytelling about their individual expert experiences. Eleven USA Olympic teams headquartered in Colorado Springs Colorado were purposefully selected and interviewed to identify patterns in their day-to-day lived experiences within their sports environments and network. These patterns and themes were examined for a deeper ontological meaning of stories that can be applied to corporate environments outside sports domains into industries with less communicative environments. Story performances, defined as exchanges wherein an experience was being recounted, interpreted, or challenged were treated as individual elements of data. These elements were grouped into seven themes, for which models were developed. These seven models were then tied together, reflecting a common mode of working in the network under study.;Key words: expert, expertise, elite, domain, goal setting, solidarity, intrinsic insights, elite knowledge sharing, giving back, doing what you are, spiritual awareness, deliberate thinking, levels of analysis. |
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