Gone are the days when we as professionals could refer to developing social-emotional skills in the workplace as a simple “plus” or “would be nice.” Countless studies from reputable universities and the WeForum’s famous “10 Essential Skills” have de-bunked the myth that soft skills have a soft effect on the bottom line. The reality is that these skills have a huge effect on companies’ productivity, culture and yes, bottom line.
But this is a post about narrative, so where are you going with this?
Right.
Consider just a few of those top 10 skills for workers across industries and regions by 2022: leadership and social influence, emotional intelligence, critical thinking and analysis, and creativity.
Did you know that storytelling and narrative skills under gird each of the aforementioned?
Pioneers in Artificial Intelligence development considered the importance of narrative from the very beginning decades ago; narrative is fundamental for forging human connection and sense-making.
So, what do I mean when I refer to narrative?
A narrative is a particular way of telling an ongoing story through connected or seemingly connected events, whether true or fictitious. In a narrative, the narrator(s) weaves together various connected stories which are consistent in upholding perspectives, beliefs or literary themes throughout.
This has a lot to do with “soft” skills and human interaction in general: think about our own narratives as individuals.
We are all influenced by our own internal narratives, and by the narratives that dominate our communities—and in the business world, this translates to our teams and corporate culture—which are called collective narratives.
But, let’s go back to this idea of strengthening social-emotional skills as a business leader. Internal narratives are the ongoing stories we narrate to ourselves consciously or unconsciously, through our own thoughts. And these narratives are about nearly everything going on around us, but most poignantly,often our strongest internal narratives are about ourselves--what we are capable of, what we are not capable of, where we're going, what we're about (at time of posting: trust me, there is at least one story you have told yourself about COVID-19 even though it has been influenced by many sources).
Our actions, behaviors, beliefs and mindsets are borne of our narratives. Inidividually, in community, but all of our behavior is under girded by the dominant stories.
Your team reacts initially to challenges and change in a similar way every time, despite your best efforts to motivate and persuade, because of the stories they have created together over time. Passive-aggressive Nancy is like that because of some deeply rooted stories she has regarding conflict and communication. Your team stresses out and plays the blame game when there is a project setback because they have the Icarus narrative arc etched in their collective stories. You get the picture.
So, how could we possibly develop emotional intelligence, empathic communication and creative collaboration skills without taking into consideration the invisible narratives that affect us? More importantly, how is narrative not our starting point for developing these human skills?
What are you doing to strengthen your social-emotional skills?
Is narrative your starting point?
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Wanna know more about collective narratives and how leaders can be at the steering wheel of their teams’ collective narratives? Hope you decide to stay tuned, this story is to be continued…