Narrative Power

Thomas Rickard
Aug 24, 2017 · 4 min read
Creative commons, Thomas Rickard.

It was dark, so dark in fact that it almost looked as if, in the large bathroom mirror opposite me, everything was there but me.

It is some blessing to wake up early, said the childless man! I love the beauty of the peace. Despite an apparent inability to meditate, I found myself with pen and paper in hand, taking my own advice of yesterday lunch time — visual sensemaking is not only for clever communication, but for finding things out.

I wanted to know what was swimming around in my mind. Recent events have suggested, or reminded me of, the power I have to dream and make things happen in my life. What do I want to make happen

The latest meeting of Instituto Nova Liderança here in belo left me with a vague but exciting notion of narrative hacking. Story seems the fundamental substrate of image, thought and action. Change the story, inject a new one, morph the old, and you change a culture — the default, the norm, and the power.

Was this what was exciting me? What if I could make a Narrative Lab, design experiments, measure culture-behaviour effects, and become some kind of wizard? What if, centred around a true, deep understanding of story, I could begin to know the workings of this great machine of civilisation to use it for whatever ends I imagined?

However absurd the dream, and whether for grace or exploitation, it is the possibility of power that draws me.

As the arrows flew across the page, I asked where this desire was coming from? I didn´t know. Resting in the cool light of the early sun, it was a sense of vulnerability that came over me. And responsibility. Without understanding my personal story, any ambition could be misplaced — if not for those I interacted with, at least for myself.

Add Service. Turn it around. The move to manipulate, adjust, shift, and direct culture speaks of a machine. It speaks of control (my desire for control?). It ignores the participants, and perpetuates the very root of the problems that I concern myself with — how do we create a life together that not only meets all of our needs, but allows us to be satisfied? So what´s the alternative?

We make our story together.

I realise that both the narrative research (SenseMaker) and staff consultation method (EMK) I find myself so excited about these last two years have this in common. They move to capture snapshot of a group´s culture, enough to offer an accessible representation back that same group, or even for others as well, in order to start a conversation—for those same people to see themselves differently, to agree or disagree, to make sense of who they are together, and to act on that story.

To see our perspective neither ignorantly followed nor utterly ignored, but included in a way we might never have imagined in something far bigger than any self— is this is the deepest justice? The antidote to the theft of our shared inalienable right to take part? If the ideal of democracy is strong, the means by which it is produced is faltering. We live in an age accelerated and interconnected, but we don´t have the skills to make a community where we are, let alone take part in a country. Let alone make it easier to imagine our future, instead of our end.

I heard the leap for power in my chest and acknowledged it. I felt the desire to help in my heart. My arms filled with the knowing I want to move. Together, in this same body, we must find a way.

So this is my peace, and cool sunlit morning. The dogs are barking, cars moving, construction underway. There is immense pleasure in the sense of coherence of the images, and the reflection. The story of my morning that I can say makes sense. It´s time to put the pens away, find a keyboard, and share a perspective.

Let me know if you´re interested in any methods, ideas or groups listed at trickard1000@gmail.com

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Thomas Rickard

Written by

A British man in Belo Horizonte, STS researcher and Environmental Education consultant.

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