My life’s work is rooted in the power of story. Growing up as an outsider of the dominant cultural groups I was around, I’ve witnessed first hand how much the stories we attach to one another shape what we believe and how we build trust.
All of us are hardwired to witness and truly listen to each other’s stories – beyond assumption and stereotypes. Our personal stories — the bedrock of narrative intelligence — has the power to eradicate what separates us, and are key elements of true diversity, equity, and inclusion work.
I’ve trained over 14,000 leaders across nine industries using The New Quo Change Model which combines neuroscience, narrative intelligence, and DEI principles to help organizations to overcome bias and build deeper trust within their interpersonal communication, through creating new story habits and patterns in how they connect and communicate about change and difference.
What is Narrative Intelligence and why does it matter for DEI?
The term narrative intelligence was first coined in technological research to examine if artificial intelligence could develop the capacity to tell stories like humans. Now it’s a term used to describe understanding the impact of a narrative on people’s beliefs and behaviors.
Humans use narrative to make sense of the world, attach meaning to our experiences, and to pass on knowledge. Every action you take and goal you hold is affected by your narrative intelligence, due to the power that story has on our brains.
Research in neuroscience has found that our bodies have a reaction to a story’s impact. When we hear a story, no matter the type, our bodies release hormones like oxytocin which builds trust, and dopamine and cortisol which affects our memory and attention. Our brains also produce mirror neurons, which fire in the same region of the listener’s brain as the storyteller’s brain. And finally, story creates a process called narrative transport which means our senses react to stories as if we’re experiencing them first hand. These effects make storytelling one of the most powerful tools on the planet for idea adoption, behavior change, and relationship building.
Think of your narrative intelligence like an inner library of stories that help you make decisions and communicate. When you witness a new change, idea, or experience, your mind flips through cultural and personal stories you know to attach to that experience to explain and create meaning of it. This process is your story habits, the default patterns of meaning you attach and express when interacting with others. It happens quickly in our interactions with one another, and affects our decision making and communication.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion work is about changing behaviors, policies, and practices across an organization in order to correct for inequalities and create better outcomes for stakeholders, staff, and the planet. Narrative intelligence is a powerful tool to model equitable change, shift beliefs, and motivate action.
3 ways to create inclusive workplaces through narrative intelligence DEI goals
Below is my three-step process from The New Quo Change Model, to use narrative intelligence to drive your DEI goals:
Step 1: Awareness – increase self-awareness of personal stories that affect beliefs and behaviors on leadership and power
This work begins within, and DEI work primarily is about power, how we use it, and how it is distributed in ways that help a group thrive.
Self-reflection and introspection about the inner-stories you hold on power and leadership is the first important step to successfully implementing DEI goals that I implement with all of my clients, as our own beliefs, biases, and behaviors can help or hinder us in the process of creating equity and change in our interactions and work.
I recommend setting aside time to reflect and journal with the following prompts:
- What were the demographics and behaviors of the leaders you interacted with most growing up within the education, business, and other institutions you frequented? How has that shaped the story you believe about power and how leaders should look, sound, and act? How do those values show up in your day to day work?
- How diverse are your networks? What does your inner circle look like? If you have the power to hire and fire people, how many underrepresented people have you helped hire/sponsor/develop into a position of genuine leadership and authority? If you haven’t been able to do this, what is one change you can make to help foster someone different from you into a leadership capacity?
- How often do you read the work of or follow, engage with, and have deep conversation or exchanges with people who are different from you across various aspects of identity? (by gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, religion etc). What are ways you can continue to add more opportunities for learning and exchanges like this into your weekly schedule?
Step 2: Attunement – ask better questions of colleagues to understand their unique personal and cultural stories
Trust building is a critical component of DEI work, which comes from us understanding one another’s life stories and experiences beyond what we may assume about one another.
A great way to use narrative intelligence in trust building is to ask what I call Questions of Curiosity, which are open ended questions that help you to better understand someone’s personal and professional stories and their challenges, values, and goals.
You can use questions like these during ice breaker activities during staff retreats, one on ones, performance reviews, meetings and more to build deeper connections and understanding within teams. Example questions:
- What was your hometown like where you grew up?
- Did your family or community inspire the career path you pursued and why?
- What’s something you would like to do more of in your day to day work?
- What’s something you’d like to learn?
Step 3: Action – craft a shared narrative of mutually beneficial goals
DEI goals require a clear vision that everyone can understand and support, and crafting a shared narrative of what DEI looks like in practice within your organization is critical for implementation and buy-in.
You can start this by first examining your organization’s Origin story: the events that took place that were the starting point of why the organization exists. From there, tie the values of this origin moment to how the DEI goals you’re committing to express those values in practice, and describe what benefit it will bring to everyone implementing and being impacted by these DEI goals.
Your leadership power is your narrative intelligence. Every person has a story to tell – with wisdom, lessons, and insights about the human experience that can lead others to believe in new ideas and a new future. Every narrative you craft about the people you interact with and the goals you care about can shift the status quo for the better.
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