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I would like to close the idea of Narrative as the Central Organizer of a Lived Experience with some additional thoughts.
Narrative is not new. It has driven minds, lives, thoughts, behaviors, and even religions since humankind began. Narrative can shift across cultures and across centuries. As narrative shifts in a new culture and new time and even in a new life, the old narrative remnants may remain. History shows how a culture from 4,000 years ago can drive a religious narrative today. From ancient Egypt to Greek mythology, to the Roman Empire and Asian cultures, narratives are passed down across cultures and times. Consider what the journey through the underworld of The Egyptian intermediary period and the western idea of purgatory have in common. Remnants remain. Consider the idea in ancient Egypt of an afterlife where you can be reunited with friends and family and the western idea of heaven. Remnants remain. Narrative can be generational; families within cultures. Shawn’s apple story demonstrated this notion — how a narrative can be driven or dragged across a generation over time — unknowingly and unconsciously — and only through awareness and examination does it significantly change. From narratives of a spiritual nature — those considered special or untouchable — to those of a generational and personal nature, narrative is not new but it can become new.
Whether we consider a culture of one (e.g., an individual mind) or a culture of many (e.g., a collective mind), life can be described as a journey of narratives that cling, or are clung to, and narratives that are replaced. But narrative itself ever exists. It ever exists because it is the central organizer of the mind.
Part of my work is determining and understanding the narrative of an organization and helping leaders create fundamental and substantial change. This isn’t skills training. It’s not about learning what to do and how to do it. It is literally changing the foundational context of how an organizati