narrative change

Storytelling was perhaps our best adaptive tool for survival; for when put in the shape of a story, the brain remembers better as it activates more regions of the brain because a story effects you emotionally, imaginatively and intellectually

stories are “the smallest unit of time travel” because stories are what allows you to go from one point in time to another. Stories are what you hold onto in our universe. Stories are also the first thing we create, and storymaking becomes a skill that people learn in our travels.

What beliefs keep the system in place? And what new narratives could change or replace the system?

Or, as illustrated by one of my all-time favorite quotes:

*“The task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought about that which everybody sees.”

*Erwin Schödinger

People think in stories. Stories ground ideas in human experience and mint new metaphors that reveal how the world is changing

‘story’ in the sense I mean it: a foundational narrative that shapes every aspect of our world. Everything we build, literally and metaphorically, from the physical infrastructure of our society to our institutions and all the products of culture, have their roots in the story and reflect its logic back to us. The story surrounds us on a daily basi

When we try to change the world, when we create containers for work, initiate relationships, or chart strategic paths forward, we are always battling assumptions. What myths underlie those assumptions? How can those myths be ripped out from under the lies they prop up? How can inevitability—a construct of the wicked—be ripped apart?

Stories are thought experiments that cut through contemporary interests and structures to imagine an alternative world. Stories help us understand the current system but also provide the tools to investigate how that world is changing and reveal solutions to work to a different futures.

I’m reminded of the words of sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.” Of course, it was also noted by philosophers Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek that “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” Such a statement displays the narrative wei

“Narrative power analysis starts with the recognition that the currency of story is not necessarily truth, but rather meaning. In other words, we often believe in a story not necessarily because it is factually true; we accept a story as true because it connects with our values, or is relevant to our experiences in a way that is compelling.”