Shifting the narrative: one of the finest roles of leadership

Have you registered for my webinar on 25th March? ^[1]

Join me as I discuss my new book – Camino – Leadership Notes on the Road and my thoughts on leadership. 

Camino is available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com to pre-order here ^[1]

Don’t miss the most recent extract – Camino Extract Chapter 1 Part 4 ^[2]

 

Taken from Camino

One of the fundamental roles of leadership is to frame the narrative of the organization. This is easy to say but not many leaders are conscious of the importance of having an overall mental frame and an overall compelling narrative that serves as an umbrella for everything. Worse, many leaders in organizations could not perhaps answer the question of ‘the narrative’. They may recite mission and visions but this is far from describing that overall big story.

There are decisions to be made about those narratives and, even more importantly, about shifting the ones in place.

Here are three examples:

1. From a performance/execution narrative that is pretty much one of the efficacy and effectiveness of the organization, to a narrative of ambition, which goes well beyond high performance to high(er) and high(er) goals and possibilities.
2. From a fixing/problem solving narrative in which problems and deficiencies are the focus, to one of building something new, creating some new culture, a new organization (in which those problems are addressed or solved).
3. From a ‘management of change’ narrative, to one of change-ability, permanent state of change and shaping a culture DNA where change is not a project anymore.

We could go for hours on the listing of possible shifts. It does not mean they are obligatory (!) but the conversation about which narrative is in place and whether it is fit for purpose and for the future, may force us to look at alternatives. It is a vital exercise that impacts on language and action.

I suggest we unpack this carefully. The glasses we have to see the world, creates our world. The historical language of the organization may have intrinsic liabilities now. New, younger generations, for example, may want to hear something different. Do we always know what?

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Don’t miss my webinar on 25th March. Register here ^[3]. Join me as I discuss my new book – Camino – Leadership Notes on the Road and my thoughts on leadership.

Camino is available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com to pre-order here ^[1]

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Dr Leandro Herrero is the CEO and Chief Organization Architect of The Chalfont Project ^[4], an international firm of organizational architects. He is the pioneer of Viral Change^TM, a people Mobilizing Platform, a methodology that delivers large scale behavioural and cultural change in organizations, which creates lasting capacity for changeability.

Dr Herrero is also an Executive Fellow at the Centre for the Future of Organization, Drucker School of Management. An international speaker, Dr Herrero is available for virtual speaking engagements ^[5] and can be reached at: The Chalfont Project ^[6] or email: [email protected]. ^[7]