APRIL 1, 2020

Imagine for a second that it's late 2020, and you're overhearing a heated debate about government lock down during the covid-19 outbreak. One person from across the steamy cafe on a cold winter's night explains that Sweden was right not to enforce a lock down, and that the state's economy is doing much better as a result. As the hot cappuccino cup presses on your lips, you overhear a surgeon respond that this is absurd, and points to the higher death toll in Sweden when compared to the rest of Europe. "Saving the economy" they argue, "wasn't worth the death toll". Yet another person argues that the lock down was a New World Order conspiracy designed to ensure all of mankind was implanted with microchips, and to eventually depopulate what they consider an over-crowded planet. 

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Suppose for a second that the second person was drawing on moral arguments derived from religious beliefs, or even the Hippocratic Oath they'd taken to become a physician.

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Suppose also that the other person was interested only in what they called "the greater economic good", while relying on purely statistical data from central banking authorities that show Sweden's better performing economy when compared to others.

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The third person was relying on information he had gotten from recordings by famous conspiracy theorists David Icke and Alex Jones.

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At this time, a cold breeze rushes through the door like a cheetah chasing a gazelle and temporarily sends a shiver into the room as more coffee lovers squeeze into an already dense cafe. You begin to think to your self about this scenario as it slowly weighs on your mind. You wonder: who is right?

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Studying narrative theory won't be able to answer that question for you. It will, however, tell you about how people come to view the world in the way that they do, and how they respond to situations.

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Narrative frames are those arguments we store in our brains; they are historical experiences we have coded in a certain way, making them easily accessible as we approach new, unfamiliar situations. The surgeon arguing for a lock down has a set of narrative frames about the fundamental duty to preserve life. The conspiracy theorist also has a set of frames about why we shouldn't trust the government or media. His frames are deep-wired; much like your ones which made you assume that the surgeon was a man, and not a woman, for example.

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All  three people part of this debate, therefore, had narrative frames in their minds which they drew on in trying to understand the reaction to corona-virus by governments around the world. Their frames gave direction to what they thought was reasonable and what they thought was an appropriate solution to the situation.  For example, the conspiracy theorist may be thought of here as crazy and paranoid. Yet in his mind, it was the others who were naive. 

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Narrative frame theory emerges in the 1970s and 1980s as cognitive scientists begin to think about Artificial Intelligence. In short, they tried to understand how humans store data and acted upon that data - all with the aim of trying to replicate this in AI systems. (I discuss this in an article, here). For example, they were interested in questions like "how do you get a computer to store data most efficiently, and to access this, and then to take a decision about how to use it?"

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From this research into AI, cognitive scientists discovered that humans remember things in story form. The brain remembers things according to a plot. An example of a typical narrative is to think of it as including some setting, a beginning, some reaction, some sort of attempt at something, an outcome, and finally "ending information". This is how we code, organize and retrieve information (Hayes 1985). 

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This basic understanding gives us a very powerful insight about how humans operate in the world.

How do we organize our own narratives about ourselves? How does this impact what we believe in, or what we think is possible? 

An intelligent businessperson will also begin to think about how they can use narrative theory to enhance the power of their company's messaging. This isn't just about empathizing with your clients so that they see a value in what you do. It's about tapping into prior held narrative frames so as bring out a sense of deep connection to your company and its goals. 

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But narrative theory goes beyond just purely money-making projects. An appreciation for narrative theory can also help leaders in all walks of life as they try to manage teams. This means both aligning team goals but also ensuring that teams are ready for the future (a topic I deal with here).

Finally, a deep appreciation for narrative frames is the first step towards figuring out how to change the narratives around us. As we have seen, narratives place limit on the realms of what we think is possible (see here). 

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Get in touch if you want to know how to begin retelling your story in a meaningful and impactful way here.