Narrative Strategy: An Organization’s Operating System
I’ve been working with a leader as they grow their organization. What was once 5 people is now 18, and they’re on target to hit nearly 50 people by the end of the year. A bold idea, championed by one scrappy entrepreneur, has blossomed into a full community of people building a new reality. A thought becoming a thing requires more than just inspired language and a good website. When we’re working with others to create something new, we need an operating system for our organization. But not just the SOPs and documentation that make up an employee handbook or operational backend— I’m talking about the shared beliefs and co-created culture that transforms intent into action and makes an organization function and flourish. I’m talking about narrative strategy.
Shared Belief
Shared belief is the agreed upon possibility. An image of a future that at first exists in our minds, but we build bit by bit with each affirmation that we are capable. It’s the systems of stories we use everyday to create something that doesn’t exist yet. The story of a problem that persists. The story of an unexpected solution. The story of how we work together. Those all form the infrastructure of our company’s narrative. Paired with communications, these stories reenforce our belief in what we’re doing, helping individuals come together and achieve breakthroughs.
Co-created Culture
Co-created culture is how I would describe accepted behaviors. We could argue that culture and narrative are one of the same, but for our purposes, culture is focused more on how we interact with each other (behavior and relationships), while narrative is our shared beliefs, mental models and stories. (Feel free to argue in the comments if you disagree.)
When a culture is being co-created, each individual in the group brings with them their unique context and situated-ness. We may assume that some things are a given, such as “treat people with kindness” or “always ask permission”, but those assumptions — those stories we hold dear about how we should behave — are not always readily accepted or agreed upon. Which is why we need to be intentional and active in our creation of a culture.
As an organization grows, the narrative of why the organization exists can easily be lost in the momentum. It’s the same with culture. How we reinforce and recommit to our beliefs and culture is where narrative strategy becomes integral. Just as an operating system has its source code, so does an organization. But instead of lines of code on a screen, organizations have narrative — a system of stories. We have the stories we embody, the stories we tell, and the stories that motivate us. Those stories become enmeshed with our behaviors and cultivate our culture.
As organizations grow, narrative strategy equips us with the beliefs and behaviors we need to transform an idea into reality. It’s the social fortification that allows teams to work together, uncertainty to be navigated, and innovation to be scaled. Organizational growth requires more than just tech infrastructure and future proofed processes. It requires an operating system that works for processes and people. We require narrative strategy to grow and thrive.
Ari Mostov is a narrative strategist. Learn more www.wellplay.world