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Narrative is central to the human experience and thus it is entangled with every aspect of social change work. Which is why many social change leaders grapple with narrative as a crosscutting component that connects all their work and are often exploring how to grow their organizations capacity to “do” narrative work.
But the realm of narrative is expansive: from the way organizations articulate their mission and frame their campaigns to the internal meaning-making processes that nurture political alignment or the stories that organizers tell to explain, motivate and mobilize. So it’s helpful to have a simple framework to outline some different steps towards building narrative power, as well as some scoping questions to help organizations explore which aspects of narrative work to prioritize.
Let’s start by defining narrative power. Like any other form of power, narrative power is about “the ability to achieve a shared purpose.” However, narrative power is unique because all power relationships have a narrative aspect. So for example if we want to change a policy or stop a bad thing happening, our narrative power defines our ability to reach, persuade and engage key audiences that can then put pressure on the decision-makers we are targeting. This narrative arena doesn’t exist separately from other types of power expressed in political or economic relationships but it does operate differently and therefore provides unique opportunities and often disproportionate impacts.
For more on narrative power and its multifaceted applications in social change work, check out my book Re:Imagining Change. For the purpose of developing narrative strategy the most important starting point for thinking about narrative power is that we aren’t just trying to tell stories, we are also trying to change stories, particularly the fundamental stories that justify an unsustainable and unjust status quo.
A Simple Framework Towards Building Narrative Power
Below are some key ingredients for building narrative power that can help your organization assess where support would be most useful. They are listed chronologically because that is the optimal sequence, particularly if starting from scratch on a new issue or initiative, but usually some work is already happening in all these areas.
Step 1) ORGANIZING: Coordination and alignment among key stakeholders Who is committing to created a shared narrative strategy together? This is the foundation of building narrative power. Sometimes we are trying to “define and align the sector” so we need a big cross-section of groups. Other projects might be targeted interventions that require just a few practitioners. It is important to be realistic about scale. It is very difficult for an individual organization to shift discourse by itself, but when aligned organizations coordinate, engage their networks and intentionally deploy narrative strategy together it can have a much bigger impact on everyone’s work.
Step 2) ANALYSIS: Development of shared analysis of narrative landscape To create an effective strategy to change narratives it is important to begin with some shared understanding of the existing narratives. This usually means assessing the dominant narratives that must be contested including their potential vulnerabilities and ways to intervene and shift the discourse.
Step 3) STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT: Co-creation of shared narrative strategy The process of engaging the right allies in order to co-create an effective product: some aspect of shared narrative strategy. This can happen in many ways but ultimately it needs enough process to ensure that critical stakeholder voices are reflected and that everyone is committed enough to actually use the strategy that is jointly developed.
Step 4) INFRASTRUCTURE: Development of narrative delivery mechanisms Creating a smart strategy is a great start but it doesn’t mean much if there aren’t ways to move the strategy in the real world. This is why it’s essential to be preparing communications infrastructure such as strategic messengers and coalition coordination systems as well as communication assets like talking points, story banks, reports, videos etc.
Step 5 (ongoing) DEPLOYMENT & PRAXIS : Launch, assess, iterate The narrative comes to life through the actions we take–the campaigns your organization is running. But narrative shift takes time. So there needs to be some infrastructure to drive the cycle of praxis: action, monitoring, assessment and iteration. This is what allows for a narrative strategy to evolve and sustain over the time needed to have an impact.
Some Questions to Help Define the Scope of a Narrative Project
Assessment: What is the current state of your organization’s narrative capacity?
- How would you assess your organization and broader work in your issue area in terms of the five steps outlined above?
- Do most of your allies already understand narrative as a critical arena and incorporate narrative power into their existing plans?
- What already exists in terms of relationships, shared analysis and capacity that can be used to grow narrative power?
- For campaigning organizations it can often be helpful to think backwards from your campaign goals to assess narrative opportunities that could align with pre-existing activities.
Existing skill and shared orientation with narrative power?
- Some organizations are sophisticated narrative practitioners while some are new to the entire approach. So it is important to assess internal skill and capacity. Do the key participants already have a clear understanding of narrative power and how narrative strategy will connect existing areas of work? I often call this a “narrative orientation.”
- It is often helpful to start a narrative project with some training or capacity-building to do some level-setting by creating shared frameworks.
Deliverable: what would be a useful end product of a narrative project at this time?
- Given the expansive scope of narrative, a group can do a lot of thinking and creative work without it necessarily translating into a clear outcome. So it is helpful for your broader assessment to anchor the process in some clear deliverables. “Constraints drive creativity!”
- Particularly some deliverables are easier for an outside consultant to do without requiring much organizational capacity, like a narrative landscape assessment or messaging audit. While a more ambitious narrative strategy might require broader stakeholder engagement in both participatory research and facilitated strategy sessions.
- Maybe you already have a narrative superstar on your staff and all they need is some training and coaching to lead an internal process?
How participatory does a project need to be to succeed?
- Some narrative interventions will spread themselves and can be crafted and deployed by a small team. But if you want to create a narrative that is widely used then you need to invite your allies and other key stakeholders into the process of co-creation.
- Given how often our organizations are already over-stretched, what is the best way to access different stakeholder’s insights? Maybe a survey or interviews with constituency leaders and key issue experts? Will the right people have the capacity to participate in co-creating a strategy?
Capacity? Not just money but your time and your shared appetite!
- Narrative Strategy work is time consuming and therefore needs to be appropriately scaled to match your organizations budgets and timelines.
- Particularly for more ambitious narrative projects there needs to be clear buy-in. Participants need to understand the way the narrative strategy will help achieve organizational goals and support existing work. This is a key precondition to create the shared appetite to invest in creative process.
- It’s important not just to have the resources to hire outside practitioners to design and lead a narrative strategy process but your staff also needs to have the time to prioritize the process and follow through to ensure it will shift outcomes.
Timelines and integration?
- Are there other processes, convenings or external events that a potential scope should take into consideration? For example: maybe a key coalition already has a working group that meets monthly and some of those sessions could be used to do generative work together. Or perhaps there is some other external campaign hook that offers a narrative launch moment or an internal organizational process that should sync up with any narrative work that happens.
What to Get more Specific? Contact Patrick to see if he could support you or your organization on the project you are exploring…
More at: https://www.patrickreinsborough.com/home/consulting/