What's the narrative?

Let's not conflate facts and truths.

Facts can be objectively proven. Truths rely on belief systems.

Truth is socially constructed.

When a group of people agree on how to interpret a fact, that interpretation becomes their truth.

Different groups have different truths.

We don't live in a world of facts. We live in societies of truths. – Self-attributed

Now, here's the catch.

Groups often are not conscious of how these truths came to be.

Ideologies. Cultures. Traditions. Habits.

Many words describe our unconscious bias toward the truths of our groups.

How are these truths created?

With stories.

We love stories for two reasons.

1. Causality. Everything must have a cause.
2. Agency. If there's a cause, there must be a causer.

Something happened, and here's why.

Something could happen, and here's how.

Stories move us. They make us feel, think, and act.

We decide with stories.

We constantly tell ourselves stories about the world and how it ought to be.

We don't remember events. We remember stories about these events.

That's why everybody remembers events differently.

Any social convention is a story.

Companies, too, are stories.

When you start a business, you sell something you don't have yet.

You're telling a story to prospective clients. And you're telling a story to employee candidates.

Countries are stories.

The global economy is a (very complicated) story.

Everything is a story!

A bit too dramatic?

But stories are just one piece of the puzzle.

Narratives are the puzzle.

If stories are vehicles to get us from A to B, narratives are the overarching direction of travel.

Narratives contextualize stories. They connect stories to values and beliefs.

They are pervasive, and they shape our reality.

Examples of narratives?

"Free speech must be protected at all cost."

"Economic growth brings prosperity."

"Apple designs the best products."

"Life challenges make us better people."

"I buy expensive old guitars to preserve music history."

When we agree with people, we agree with their narrative.

What is consensus, if not a common narrative, an overarching journey in which all parties can build their own stories?

Conversely, disagreement usually arises from conflicting narratives.

Because nobody wants to be part of a story that doesn't resonate with them.

If you want to be heard and understood, you need to develop your narrative muscle.

In any conversation, any issue, there's always a dominant narrative.

Find it. Understand it.

Because facts matter as much as your ability to create stories around them that fit the prevailing narrative.

Or your ability to change the narrative altogether.

So what's the narrative?

Are you shaping it? Or is it shaping you?