Taking control of the narrative
Why is narrative so important? Telling stories seems frivolous. We want to make data-driven decisions. But narrative is actually much more powerful than data, because without narrative, data has no meaning.
Let me say that again, because it’s important. Without narrative, data has no meaning.
What do I mean by that? Let’s take my morning as an example. Here’s the data:
I woke up. It was raining. I got dressed. I meditated for ten minutes. I drank a smoothie. I wrote this blog entry.
Here’s the narrative:
I woke up much too early, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. When I finally got out of bed, it was raining—same as yesterday. I got dressed in all black, same as yesterday. I meditated for ten minutes, but most of the time I was distracted. Worrying about money. Toward the end of the ten minutes my right hip started to bother me from sitting cross-legged. I’m getting old. I drank a smoothie. I’m trying to lose 25 pounds, but so far I’ve only gained four pounds. I wrote this blog entry, which probably no one will ever read.
The data takes on new meaning, does it not? Well, here’s a competing narrative:
I woke up early, already thinking about what I wanted to write for my blog entry today. It started to rain, and I got out of bed. I love the rain. I dressed in black sweatpants and a black sweatshirt. This outfit is comfortable but also makes me feel like a ninja. I meditated for ten minutes. I’m getting back into meditating after a long break, and every day it gets a little easier. I wrote this blog entry, and I think it’s going to be the first one I publish on my new website.
Different narrative, using the same accurate data. Notice that the two narratives start with basic facts, but each version adds additional information to put those facts in context. This is storytelling: details that build up to an emotional effect.
In this case, these are stories I tell myself about myself. This is certainly powerful, as any therapist or life coach will tell you. But I’m not a therapist or a life coach—I’m a storytelling coach. I’m not as concerned with the stories you tell yourself as the stories you tell other people, particularly in a professional context.
As an example, let’s talk about quarterly sales numbers. Here’s the data:
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
75 12 25 100
Are these 75 million? 75 thousand? 75 dollars? Doesn’t matter. This could be a global corporation or a lemonade stand, but these are the numbers. The first quarter, the number is high. The second quarter, the number is very low. The third quarter, the number is a little higher. The fourth quarter, the number is even higher than the first quarter.
We could add detail to this. We could look at the quarterly figures from last year, and talk about year-over-year numbers. We could break down the numbers weekly, and get 52 numbers instead of four. We could look at other relevant information for the same time period: traffic to our website, our social media engagement, the number of sales reps in the field, the stock market, the weather.
Anyone who cares about these numbers will develop a narrative around them. If they have access to the data, they will form a narrative about that data. They can’t help it. It’s a function of the human mind that when we are presented with data we care about, we begin to form a narrative around that data. Otherwise it’s meaningless, and human beings need our lives to have meaning the same way we need food and water.
We tell ourselves a story about it—whether it’s what we did when we woke up this morning or quarterly sales figures for where we work.
We must become compelling storytellers in order to be effective leaders. We must tell our colleagues a story that is more compelling than the story they are already coming up with on their own. This is not easy.
But storytelling can be taught, it can be learned, and you will get better if you practice.
Notice the stories you tell yourself today, and the stories other people tell you about the data. Which story do you believe? What makes one narrative more compelling than another? How does it change the way you see your work? And your life?
