All stories have a shelf life, a time beyond which they start to fall apart and forgotten. This is a natural and normal process and applies to all entities that make use of stories. Empires, kingdoms and reputations are all ultimately narrative based; all political and economic power is contained in story.
Since all power is story based, it is important to pay attention to signs of narrative collapse so that the existing story can be adjusted to align with and reflect change or even replaced with an altogether new narrative. So what are the symptoms of narrative collapse? Here are some ideas:
- People argue and complain about the story and take sides
- People cannot see their own roles in the story If the narrative does not benefit people and is seen as actually causing harm, it becomes a cause to take it down.
- Everyone has a different take on the story – in sharing these different narrative versions, people become unsure of what the real story/truth is
- Details, promises/expectations and facts contained within the story change causing distrust
- Stories are moved into the future by “events” – in this world, it is becoming increasingly unclear who is in control of “the story” since there are many more events occurring daily often attributed to the wrong actors
- It becomes unclear as who is guiding the story and whether the story is being guided at all
- People make fun of and LOL and meme about the story and those who tell it
- People become aware of the inconsistencies inherent in the story – if the story cannot contain the happenings in the world, disbelief becomes commonplace
- Stories told by leadership and those further down the hierarchy don’t gel – people become aware of this very quickly and will point out this to each other
- Leadership behaviour is always under many microscope and any stories implicating the el presidente / CEO / chairman in corruption and other dis-honourable behaviours will create the impression that even the “head honcho” has no confidence in the story. Because those in leadership are role models, their behaviours become emulated by other organisational players precipitating further narrative collapse
- People get into trouble for disagreeing with the story – dissent or questioning of the story is met with threats, force and violence
- Critiques of the story appear in social media – people create multimedia posters and websites about the story
- Behaviours occur that show loss of confidence in the story – these include protests, public displays, runs on banks, strikes, blockades etc..
- Those who are tied into and “tell the story”- particularly leadership – are implicated in fraud, bribery and corruption and are mentioned in leaked documents such as #panamapapers
- Promises and visions of the future made in the story are unfulfilled
- The story becomes boring because it is repeated so often
Why is this important? Since all political and economic power is grounded in stories, narrative breakdown is a THE key to loss of confidence, revolution and collapse. When the story collapses, and in the absence of a guiding story, people can do anything. There are plenty examples of this in history. If you happen to be the author-ity, the solution is to make feedback-based adjustments to the story ongoing and/or have a brand new story waiting to take you into the future, leaving the old one behind.
Much like preventative maintenance is carried out on cars and aircraft, organisational and personal narratives need frequent assessment, questioning and upgrading to ensure that they are up-to-date and reflect reality as experienced day-to-day. Because by the time you realise the story is kaput, it’s far too late.
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