On Narrative Shift with Erik Peterson

Narrative shift happens when we stop basing decisions, strategies, and policies on the current dominant narrative and start, instead, to purposefully ground our work in our personal values and principles. What are dominant narratives? “Lift yourself up by the bootstraps,” “America First!,” and “It’s a dog-eat-dog world,” are just a few examples. But what about personal values? Well, for me those include mutual support, iterative learning, and putting the planet first. But you probably have a totally different set of values. Almost all organizations claim to pursue their goals in the most well-intentioned and even idealistic way, not operating from inside the dominant narrative but somehow above it. But sadly, many of these well-meaning groups, having been born and built from inside this narrative, actually operate according to the very values they’re trying to dismantle. Unfortunately, many of the ways we seek to shift this dynamic are ineffectual and insufficient. We try to double down with workshops or trainings to change ideas, or write new values statements–but that's not solving the underlying root cause: We haven't decolonized our minds and worldview from the dominant narrative. We don't really believe in the values we say we are working towards. Check out our chat with Erik Peterson of Bending the Arc Strategies on what narrative shift is, why we need it, and how to start!

Original publishing date: January 29, 2020