Narratives for Systems Change

As part of our series covering the Systems Innovation Guides we have our next 1-hour learning session on the 4th of May, in which will be looking at a model called the Narratives Guide, this is the last model within the ‘Change’ module of the guides. Whether in our personal lives or in society as a whole, structures and systems are what enable a "new normal" to persist. To create systemic change (and to develop new structures), new stories must be told and new symbols must be constructed.

This article will help you understand why stories are important and how they function as one of the key dimensions to enabling systems-level innovation.?

Narratives

"Change the story and you can change the future" David Corton

Stories shape how we understand the world, our place in it, and our ability to change it, they can make, prop up, and bring down systems. It is through language that we build our shared understanding and culture evolves. It's the narratives that we tell ourselves and the narratives that we tell each other that actually create the world we share. Most of what shapes our lives are institutions, which are largely just stories that we share.

Humans have always used stories to give coherence to the complex world we find ourselves in. With the rise of agrarian societies, we created myths that glorified the land and highlighted the seasonal and daily rhythm of life. https://bit.ly/2JUFyyq

When we started to settle, humans created myths imbuing cities and buildings with new values. On a cultural level, the stories we live in justifying the status quo, make institutions feel inevitable, legitimize certain kinds of solutions, and make our world feel preordained, when in fact it is largely the story that adds these attributes.

Our future is made up of the stories we tell today, thus we can change our future by simply telling different stories. If we want to change a system, create a different world, we are going to have to have a coherent story about the new possibilities. As such the output to a vision should be a story that is both aspirational and realistic, which will engage and ignite change.

Charlotte Millar co-founder and strategist with the Finance Innovation Lab talks about the need for stories as part of a system change process as such: “this work of authoring a compelling story about yourself, your community, and the need for urgent action, is integral to creating movements. Without a common story, movements lack a narrative about why they exist and will fail to generate a sense of belonging amongst their members.”

Elements of Stories

For people to act with sustained coherence they need some culture that makes sense of their world and gives it coherence - an ontology - they need some value system to tell them which way is up and which way is down - an axiology - these values create a direction for them to travel in to get to the things they value - a teleology.

In the article Using Story to Change Systems Ella Saltmarshe itemize some of the key attributes to stories - "Story has many different qualities that make it useful for the work of systems change. It’s a direct route to our emotions, and therefore important to decision-making. It creates meaning out of patterns. It coheres to communities. It engenders empathy across difference. It enables the possibility to feel probable in ways our rational minds can’t comprehend. When it comes to changing the values, mindsets, rules, and goals of a system, the story is foundational."

Sense-Making

Sense-making is the process by which people give meaning to their collective experiences. It has been defined as "the ongoing retrospective development of plausible images that rationalize what people are doing." https://bit.ly/2KbBMB1

In the 21st century with the rise of the Anthropocene, we live in uncharted territory, where old stories that served us well for so long are now appearing incomplete in a world of complexity. We increasingly feel a sense of being overwhelmed and the world "falling apart" because our stories of how the world works are no longer suffice and that lack of story translates into a lack of direction. In this uncharted territory, we are looking for new ways to make sense of complexity.

The formation of stories or narratives helps us make sense of the world around us within a coherent overall narrative. They relax the constraints of itemizing details and strict adherence to facts so that we can try to see and make sense of the whole.

Stories help us make sense of our world the past, present, and future, thus illuminating the ways of change. They can, in a comprehensive way, illustrate future possibilities and gaps with present reality to create the space for creative tension and energy.

As systems practitioner David Stroh said in an interview: “It’s like the story of the blind men and the elephant. Everyone only sees their part of an elephant. They see the individual stories they tell themselves about what’s true. Sharing these helps them create a more expanded and accurate collective narrative. It enables them to develop a shared picture of reality.”

Identity

Building a new identity for a network of members is required to engage people in change. Identities can be created, and have always been created, with not much more than a story. France, Japan, the United States are stories that were created when a group of people started to connect due to innovations in communication, transport, political organization, and cultural change.

Identities are created when there is a fertile ground of connectivity and shared experience, it is the story that builds upon that to give it coherence. This is illustrated by Jean Monnet's statement back at the foundation of the European Union "Europe has never existed. One must genuinely create Europe." https://bit.ly/32mk040

People are now connected in new ways and share experiences across old divides. The global middle class is but one such group and new stories are now needed to help them see their shared identity; to mobilize these groups in new ways to meet the challenges of today.

As Peter Senge notes: "organizations, it doesn’t matter how much money they make, it doesn’t matter how much power and technology they have, they don’t last that long, but there is a relatively small number that has lasted a very long time, and they found the first defining feature of long-lived companies was a sense of identity. They had a sense of who they were that transcended what they did. Therefore because they were secure in this core identity they were more open and adaptive."

Systems change is about connecting across boundaries and between organizations and individuals who would normally not recognize a commonality or shared intent. To create a space that brings those people together we are going to have to create a new story and identity that all feel a part of; to create empathy, and coherence and enable people to connect across differences. https://bit.ly/2JUFyyq

The empathetic aspect of the story is vital here, when bringing together groups, we need to compose a picture of the world and the issues at hand, the possible solution that involves the relevant parties illustrating how they need to be working together to get the desired outcomes. Stories create the context within which very different people can discover their shared values and connect. As such we have to be very careful in the creation of our narrative to ensure that it does not exclude those that need to be a part of the change process.

Narrative in its different forms can help to hold a mirror up to a group of people so that they see themselves and understand their commonalities better. Otto Scharmer notes the importance of this when he says: “The one thing that I have learned from all these projects is that the key to transformative change is to make the system see itself. That’s why deep data matters. It matters to the future of our institutions, our societies, and our planet.” https://bit.ly/2NLjSpA

Stories are Intangible

Stories use abstraction to remove the details and thus better reveal some overall pattern over time. In this way they can cover a lot of ground working to connect people with their past, they can be used to dramatize the present situation and the need for change, to create momentum and drive.

One of the major benefits to this abstract nature of stories is that they are largely intangible and can thus be almost costless, and an incredibly powerful way to scale at near-zero cost. A story that at its core is simple but engenders a creative and powerful idea that can immediately engage people and ignite them towards change.

In this respect, Graham Leicester of International Futures Forum notes: "What we see is it takes a shift in mindset to start a transformative innovation, minimal finance. If you put up a big innovation budget and invite applications you are not likely to get something transformative. It doesn't really take money to get started it takes a shift in mindset."

Today in the era of global media and telecommunications storytelling is as powerful a vehicle as ever, films, television shows, online videos and advertisements move people and engage people like little else. With digital technologies and global telecommunication infrastructure, the tools we now have at our fingertips for telling stories and communicating a message to possibly billions are quite profound and should be seen as one of our greatest resources and potential to change systems.

Narratives for Systems Change Canvas:

This canvas is designed to walk you through these different aspects of building stories to enable systems change. One starts with defining the objectives and purpose of the story and the canvas takes them through the steps of world-building; values & challenges, course of action and identity building.

Creating a narrative for environmental sustainability example:

Our Narratives for Systems Change guide is of relevance to anyone interested in crafting stories for systems change. The guide strives to illustrate the role of narrative in a systems change initiative. So if you want to create narratives for systems change; to “occupy the future” and turn it into a space of opportunity for us to collectively co-create a different system join us for our next learning session.

You can the find the full guide here: https://bit.ly/3r8JZv9

Learning Session: https://bit.ly/3Mn66Gd

May 4th, 5:30 pm UK

By Si London Hub