Narrative Strategy: Navigating Uncertainty
Uncertainty is a paradox. We often feel paralyzed in its presence — disoriented, unable to find meaning, direction, or purpose. Nothing feels knowable, and that’s terrifying.
And yet, uncertainty is also where possibility lives. It’s the realm idealists and optimists romanticize. The birthplace of potential. Chaos that breeds creation.
So how do we harness the productive side of uncertainty without being overwhelmed by it? How do we move forward when the path is unclear?
This is where I believe narrative strategy shows its true strength. In times of disruption, narrative becomes more than communication — it becomes orientation. But it’s one thing to talk about managing change, and another to apply these ideas when uncertainty dominates every conversation. So instead of offering theories, I’ll share how I’ve integrated narrative strategy into real-world change — what worked, what didn’t, and why clarity became our most important asset.
Organization Launch During COVID-19
In the summer of 2021, a global e-commerce company made the decision to go permanently remote. With a distributed international workforce, the move made sense operationally. But the narrative behind the shift was muddled. Employees were struggling to understand the “why” behind the transition.
At the same time, the company was launching a new growth marketing organization — onboarding people from across departments, hiring rapidly, and preparing for new product rollouts. Add to this the broader social context: just a year after the George Floyd protests, equity and justice were still at the forefront of every CSR agenda. Every public company was speaking to these issues. And this company was no exception.
But despite their best efforts, the leadership team couldn’t overcome the prevailing atmosphere of mistrust. Conversations were heavy with fear. Launching a new product felt implausible. What they needed wasn’t just a strategy — they needed a unifying narrative.
Co-Creation = Co-Ownership
When I joined, there was already a strategic document outlining the new initiative. But it had been created in isolation by leadership. It was vague, repetitive, and disconnected from the day-to-day realities employees were experiencing.
Working with an insights colleague, we began conducting anonymous interviews with employees. What we heard was consistent: the strategy felt out of touch. Individual contributors, managers, and directors all voiced a common concern — leadership wasn’t listening. And this lack of listening was deepening the very uncertainty leadership was trying to resolve.
So, we proposed a new approach: co-create the strategy’s core narrative — not just with executives, but with team members at every level.
North Star Narrative
A North Star Narrative transforms a strategy document into a shared sense of purpose. It reframes an organization’s vision, mission, and values into a compelling, emotionally resonant story that answers three critical questions: Where are we now? Where are we going? And why does it matter?
Drawing from Aristotle’s timeless rhetorical framework — ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic) — the North Star Narrative serves as both compass and anchor. It’s not a slide deck or policy page. It’s something people want to read, remember, and reference.
Over the course of 12 weeks, we worked with leadership and teams across the company to build a new North Star Narrative. As we implemented a refreshed communications strategy, we embedded this narrative at every level of the organization. It was repeated in all-hands meetings, standups, and town halls. Weekly leadership updates reinforced the story and invited dialogue.
When new challenges emerged — as COVID-19 intensified and supply chain issues mounted — the North Star Narrative served as a compass. It provided direction while adapting to shifting conditions. Agile, but grounded. Evolving, but unwavering in purpose.
Clarity > Uncertainty
We didn’t resolve all the uncertainty. That was never the goal. What we delivered was clarity — a framework people could rely on, even as the unknowns multiplied. Clarity doesn’t eliminate uncertainty, but it does make it navigable. It turns challenges into opportunities — if you’re willing to reframe the story.
With the North Star Narrative in place, morale improved. Teams began to align with the initiative. Leadership started collaborating with, rather than speaking at, their teams. Momentum returned. Innovation didn’t just seem possible — it became exciting, even in the face of ambiguity.
Room for Improvement
Narrative strategy combines storytelling and strategic communication to produce real outcomes. And I believe we met many of our goals in this engagement. But at the time, measuring impact took a back seat to triaging discord. I didn’t build a clear outcomes tracking framework, and I didn’t have access to the final performance data.
What I did have were comments from leadership and ICs that stuck with me. They described improved alignment, stronger collaboration, and meaningful traction: launching new products, increasing market share, and delivering on the promise of the story they had co-created.
Since then, I’ve developed a more robust outcomes process. Today, I focus on capturing qualitative data — listening to internal and external narratives, gauging sentiment, and assessing whether the initiative created meaningful alignment. Was it a success? How is success defined? These are the questions I now explore with every client.
Narrative Strategy as Compass
Narrative strategy isn’t just about messaging. It’s about navigating uncertainty. It provides clarity, coherence, and conviction — especially when nothing else feels certain. In a world full of “what ifs,” narrative gives us the language to turn unknowns into action, fear into forward motion, and disruption into a shared destination.