Command the Narrative

Humans are story tellers. We can’t help it. Stories create connection and meaning. 

As a survival instructor one of my main roles was creating uncertainty for participants. One of the most effective tactics was to give factual but incomplete information. Groups would fill the gaps with incredible things they thought we were going to do to them. One group turned “there will be a helicopter involved” into “They are going to make us skydive into the desert out of a helicopter”. You can imagine the stress that caused!

Incomplete information is a permanent feature of our current. Sometimes this is a product of complexity – there is so much to understand, that it’s almost impossible to get a complete picture. Sometimes it’s because of rapidly evolving situations where what was useful yesterday is irrelevant today.

 Either way it creates uncertainty, and we can’t help filling the gaps. We’ve seen this right through COVID – people setting arbitrary dates when ‘normal’ will be back is just one example. 

I reckon it’s imperative for leaders to Command the Narrative if you want any sense of certainty for you and your team. 

I’m not suggesting for a minute that you put fanciful ‘spin’ into the gaps. That will rapidly build scepticism and distrust. Rather, focus the narrative on purpose and direction. Make it about how you will behave in relation to each other and the challenges you face. Make it about the cultural expectations you have of each other. 

If you do that well, challenges and information gaps become opportunities to intentionally build culture and a sense of internal certainty that isn’t reliant on the situation you are currently in.