Narrative Strategy: Collective Meaning-making
Technology is not our absolute salvation.
We absolutely need to become more literate and capable in technologies, but we’re missing something more essential to our future existence: meaning-making.
I am no expert on semiotics, semantics, philosophy or psychology. But I have observed one thing over and over again: we seek meaning. Especially in times of uncertainty and change, we need to know why. And many will find their “why” in some group setting like religious communities, families or friend groups. Relationships are an ideal form of meaning-making, helping us find status and context in our exchanges with each other. But we are missing one more key area of meaning-making — the type that will really give us the answers we are craving.
Our work. The work that we do with others, especially in organizations. In today’s society, we spend most of our waking hours with our teammates at work, usually in some hierarchical structure that results in (hopefully) a way to provide for ourselves and (hopefully) a sense of meaning.
And this is where things get muddled. Working in groups to achieve certain aims should be as simple as giving directions and the right resources. Here’s what you do, here’s the tools to do it. Get it done.
Humans, try as we might, are not machines. We need more than input-process-output. We need our “why”. And when we’re in a collective, we need a collective why.
That’s where narrative strategy comes in. Using storytelling, we can help individuals determine what’s meaningful for them and how they play a role in a larger narrative. They find their meaning not just through their individual pursuit, but as part of a larger whole.
When individuals know their why and believe in the meaning they are making, there’s nothing that they can’t do. But a collective that knows their why as a group? Be it a team, an organization, or a whole population? Their sense of purpose is unstoppable. Just think of any religious crusade. Whole empires were toppled because a group knew their “why”.
So while we continue to upskill our tech tools and abilities to navigate the unknown, we must not neglect the most important skill of the future: collective meaning-making.
Narrative strategy is one way to practice and embrace collective meaning-making. What other methods are you seeing that give not just individuals but groups a sense of purpose and an answer to their “why’?