Narrative Strategy: Using Stories to Get Sh*t Done

A tale of two clients

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

I spent all of October deep in the weeds of two client projects. One of which was a federal grant application— yes, during a government shutdown— and I think I’ve finally had a moment to recover.

Because let me tell you, so much of this life and the work we do is not about the ‘brilliance of an idea’ or the promise of a strategy. It’s getting sh*t done. And that requires more than simply having a team meeting and nodding all our heads. It’s the coordination. The motivation. The conversations that lead to actions and the accountability that comes from working together. And if you want sh*t to get done, you better bet your bottom’s dollar it requires storytelling.

So let me walk you through what October was like for me, as I led one project and supported another.

Let me show you how we got sh*t done with narrative strategy.

Client A: <25 days to apply for a federal grant

It was my idea in the first place to apply for the grant. And yes the government shutdown was already in effect, but hey, if the juice is worth the squeeze, you squeeze it. I came across the grant announcement and quickly realized Client A was a good candidate. But first I had to share the news with the team, and see if it was something they would even consider. I quickly researched if grant applications would still be accepted during a government shutdown (yes!), and presented a story to leadership. It went something like this —

We’ve only fantasized about quickly building trust with a US agency to use our product. But here’s a real opportunity to collaborate with this leading agency, and demonstrate our science and technology to leaders nationwide. This grant is non-dilutive funding—tax payer dollars— that we will use to test and deploy our product. A product we’ve designed from the beginning to serve our community. I know it’s a tight deadline, but we have an extraordinary offering that the public deserves to experience. We just need to organize ourselves, determine our positioning and commit. What do you think?

Of course there were concerns and pushback, but leadership agreed it was the right opportunity. I was tasked with project management — coordinating the people and pieces we needed for the grant. But I was also the lead for our collaborators — convincing other people outside of our company to commit to our project. And mind you, there was no guarantee we would be awarded the grant, but if you want to get sh*t done….you use storytelling.

I reached out to two potential collaborators that I had barely spoken to. But in the short time we’ve known each other, we identified shared values and ambitions. These collaborators would be our field site partners, and we needed their commitment for our grant application to be worth it’s effort. At first, one collaborator was hesitant, unsure of our intentions. Through thoughtful conversations and listening to their current context, we created a new story - a story of shared success. We identified what were their current challenges in their business, how Client A’s product could be helpful, but also the risks that we needed to address. We were operating under the belief that we would be awarded the grant, and our collaboration would be fruitful for everyone involved. By stepping into the future story of what our collaboration would look like, we were able to design a collaboration agreement that satisfied everyone’s needs and concerns. Fortunately, our second collaborator was eager to participate and within a week we had our letters of support ready to go.

With our collaborators set, it was time to tackle the never ending list of obstacles that arise when applying for a grant during a government shutdown. Mainly, the sweat inducing effort to get the grant.gov workspace working. I could give you every excuse for why it wasn’t working, but let me tell you, I have never prayed to more deities than in this moment. When government tech that is held together by spit and rubber bands is the deciding factor between grant submission and no grant submission, you pray to everyone you can think of!

And this is where my role as narrative strategist goes from words on the page to evangelical preacher. My client was losing hope, convinced the government shutdown would never end. Our team was losing sight of the future possible, believing that we would be stuck in limbo. This is where I started calling everyone involved. I listened, acknowledging their struggles, recognizing their frustrations and exhaustion. But I reminded them of why we started this in the first place. I shared the stories of our prior challenges and what we had overcome. I reminded them of our customers, waiting on the product so they could solve their own challenges. I wasn’t just repeating platitudes and crossing my fingers. I believed we would succeed and I shared why.

This is where our collective desire took over. Yes, we had obstacles and the uncertainty was constant, but we wanted this grant. We would find a way to get it submitted.

And we did. Thanks to the determination of our team, each taking turns waiting on hold with the skeleton support crew of grants.gov, we got our grant submitted.

Will we be awarded the grant? I can’t say. But the work we put into our proposal gave our team much needed clarity and motivation to continue our work, grant or no grant.

So Client A got the grant in. Now what about my second client?

Client B: But Why?

Client B was struggling with finding a way forward. An early stage company, they got lost in the hype of their industry, distracted by what their competitors were doing and unsure of the signal they needed to follow amongst all the noise. I started working with them the first week of October, brought in to create a narrative bible for the company. I started by meeting with each member of the team for 1:1 sessions. This is where I engage in story-listening, a conversational approach to discovery and learning more about the people who’ve come together to deliver something new. In those story-listening sessions, I pay close attention to language used, key desires and challenges, and see what overlaps across all the people I meet with. I start collating their stories into a North Star Narrative, giving them a tangible resource that they can rely upon when things become muddled with uncertainty.

And as I was doing this work, I was being brought into more meetings. Narrative strategy is not just a novel way to put your thoughts on paper. It’s using storytelling to navigate the future, and make decisions to achieve what is decided. I was meeting with the CEO on the weekends and at late hours, helping them make sense of new information and weave their thoughts into a story they could share with the rest of the team.

And what started to emerge was a new phase of growth for the company. With new language and positioning, the team finally had ways to share the potential they saw with others. I started creating new materials for the sales team, digging deeper into the product team’s designs and finding myself leading meetings I never thought I’d be a part of. I was the steward of Client B’s narrative and I was here to make sure we didn’t lose the plot.

Soon, the meetings we had stopped being about “what ifs” and “who knows” to “this is what we’re doing”. Yes, uncertainty was still there, but with the North Star Narrative in hand, each member of the team knew why they were here. We started seeing positive results trickle in, evidence that our story was resonating with customers.

For Client B, I was brought on initially to help them identify and share their narrative. But by working together, we utilized storytelling to get sh*t done.

This is what narrative strategy looks like in practice. It’s the exchange of listening and telling, the conversations that become actions, the identification of desires and motivations that supersedes any obstacle. It’s the very human need to know why any of this effort matters. Story gives us the why. But it can also give us the how.

So, if I were to give you a tidy conclusion for this blog post it would be this:

If you want to get sh*t done, you need a good story.