Your Opportunity - Part 4

A new strategic narrative is a new opportunity to call people to action. When you change the traditional way people view the world, you engage and motivate your community.

In part 1 of this brief email series, we talked about the main idea behind the concept of strategic narrative. Here it is again:

Seek to create a new narrative. To grow your impact, take people on a journey that changes the way they view the world. Then, position your idea as ideal for them to thrive in this new interpretation of their context.

For reference, in part 2, and then in part 3, we explored the opportunity that narratives provide when you’re on a mission to good, and how as a business leader, you are now responsible for some of the new narratives that society depends upon.

The next opportunity brought by a new strategic narrative is a call to action that is a lot stronger than a mere “buy-now” button on your website, for example.

Here is an example

Arcimoto is and always has been powered by a community of stakeholders with whom we share a vision of sustainable transportation, clean skies, and a future that is a whole lot more fun. We hope you'll join us. Mark Frohnmayer - President and Founder, Arcimoto

The strategic narrative of Arcimoto is this:

“It is now possible, easy, and fun to drive every day without killing our environment. But it will require us to change the way we think about mobility. Will you dare to believe that it is possible?

This is a great example of what a new narrative about transportation does - it calls us all to shift our understanding of how to get from point A to point B as we commute or run errands.

Why this matters

A story lives in the past. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. We know the conclusion because it already happened, either to us or to someone else than us.

Conversely, a narrative lives in the future. There is a starting point, a path forward in the middle, but the end is undefined because we have yet to experience it. A narrative is open-ended. There is hope but no guarantee. This “open-endedness” opens a door and frames an invitation to move forward. It creates momentum, action, decision, and perhaps urgency to do something about the status quo.

If you recognize the difference between story and narrative, you will realize that a narrative allows you to grow your impact.

A new strategic narrative generates valuable momentum that people will want to benefit from. It can help us move beyond fear and cultivate excitement because it is focused on creating possibilities.

That’s especially true in our world dominated by fear and the scarcity of meaning.

Think about it as you’re selling your ideas or working on the next phase of your business.

Here is my call to join the strategic narrative “revolution”:

Join the Next Strategic Narrative Underground Session

Discover The Pattern Language For Strategic Narratives during a free weekly 30-minute flash course with me on zoom.

For the next two months, I am inviting you every Thursday at 9:00 am Pacific to attend a presentation and participate in a conversation about one of the patterns included in the book that I started writing.

I talk for about 15 minutes, and then we discuss specific aspects of what you’ve learned. I answer your questions, and this is also a chance for me to gather your feedback.

At the end of the call, you will get access to the Google document with the manuscript of my book. Each time you join, you get access to a new pattern. You can join for free as many times as you want.

Join us next Thursday, May 6th, at 9:00 am Pacific.

Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvdemuqTsqG9VNmso2ZqPmiGXJP644gYfx

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.