USING NARRATIVES <br> TO INSPIRE <br>TRANSFORMATION
An excerpt from our latest Orange Paper, How to Change a Mind.
Whether it’s encouraging people to adopt new ways of working, adapting to new technology and different situations, changes to policies or procedures, or facing disruption — change is as crucial as it is inevitable.
Yet change isn’t easy.
Behaviour Change and Behaviour Based Safety programs are stalwarts of the business world. Yet this type of transformation tends to happen at surface level, taking the form of compliance, and lacking the necessary conviction needed to foster and sustain real change over time.
In our latest Orage Paper, How to Change a Mind, we explore various tactics for changing the beliefs, values and attitudes that drive behaviours. And one of the most influential catalysts for transformation is narratives.
Like emotions, our values, behaviours, attitudes and beliefs have a narrative component that is closely connected to our sense of identity. This narrative is the internal justification for why we believe, value, perceive and do what we do. In a sense, it’s these narratives that truly determine who we are, not a particular value or belief.
In its simplest form, such a narrative might be, ‘I am this because I think/do that’.
But the simplicity of that statement belies how narratives can come to define us in less obvious ways. For instance, it’s reasonable to assume we do nice things for friends and bad things to our enemies. But the Benjamin Franklin Effect describes how we actually grow to like people for whom we do nice things, and dislike those to whom we are unkind.
It’s a subtle difference in cause and effect — the behaviour precedes the belief, rather than the other way around. But it’s the narrative we retrospectively build to justify our behaviour with a belief that’s powerful.
An example of this phenomenon occurred during the Vietnam War, where the North Vietnamese government succeeded in changing the beliefs of American prisoners of war, without coercion.
The process began with the captors ordering their prisoners to think of arguments in support of the North Vietnamese government, and write down all the reasons their existing beliefs might be wrong. This likely went against the Americans’ beliefs, yet thinking about it opened them up to the new idea and the act of writing it down reinforced their commitment.
After the soldiers wrote their letters, they were asked to present them to the other prisoners.
In both cases, the soldiers were pressured but not forced to comply. And this was a crucial factor in changing their beliefs. If they’d been forced to write or present the letter under threat of punishment, they could have justified their compliance as survival. But in the absence of coercion, the soldiers were compelled to look inward for justification.
The only logical narrative was: ‘I did it because I believe what I wrote’.
However, it was the final step that increased dissonance to a level that forced a change in belief. The soldiers were told that as a result of their speech, other prisoners had changed their beliefs. Now, not only had the American soldiers publicly supported the North Vietnamese government, but they were also responsible for changing others’ minds.
To reconcile their actions, the American soldiers inevitably changed their minds. Their behaviour was inconsistent with their pre-existing beliefs, and without external justification, they had no choice but to alleviate dissonance by adjusting their beliefs to fit the behaviour. Their minds built a case and provided a narrative to support the change.
This particular example is obviously a far cry from a scientific study. It relies on anecdotal evidence and countless variables that can’t be quantified. The experience of war could easily have disillusioned the American soldiers to a point at which they already held conflicting beliefs prior to capture. However, it confirms numerous other examples of internal justification driving a change of belief.
Given their effectiveness, it’s no surprise that change narratives have become increasingly prevalent in business. Though often there’s only a surface-level understanding of why.
As well as justification, a story provides connection and context. It brings together all the information, combining empathy, justification, facts and emotions into a compelling narrative arc. Research shows we experience a well-told tale in exactly the same way as if it were actually happening to us. We respond viscerally, as if our own senses were being stimulated.
The way in which people experience stories means that by providing a compelling narrative, even though it’s essentially an external justification, actually induces internal justification for change.
Where many change narratives fall down, though, is in failing to consider that any change in beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours, along with the related narratives and emotions, inevitably leads to a shift in identity.
This change can be difficult to reconcile. But we can make it easier by painting a flattering portrait of the type of person they will become. This isn’t about fundamentally changing people, but about depicting an archetype to aspire to while filling in the details with their own unique attributes.
TL;DR
Our beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours have a narrative component that influences our identity; these need to be considered and redefined.
Narratives promote the internal justification needed for change to occur.
An effective change narrative brings together all the information, including context, facts, empathy and emotion.
Narratives should consider and ease the process of individual identity change.
