Enterprise A-Z: Narrative
The Story Under Every Decision
On paper, the business case for your work is solid. The risk is clear, the opportunity is real, the peers are moving. Still, decisions get watered down or delayed.
Often, you’re not just up against numbers. You’re up against the story the company tells itself about what it is here to do.
Why narratives matter
Every organisation runs on a few core narratives:
“We win on cost.”
“We are the innovators.”
“We’re a safe pair of hands.”
“We follow our customers.”
Sustainability gets filtered through those stories. If the dominant narrative is “we don’t take risks,” then even low‑risk pilots can feel threatening. If the story is “we only do what customers ask,” then leadership will ignore risks and opportunities customers haven’t named yet.
When your work clashes with the dominant story, it will keep feeling “off‑strategy” no matter how strong your slides are.
What narratives actually are
Narratives show up in:
The phrases leaders use over and over in town halls and strategy decks.
The metaphors that appear when they talk about the future (“war,” “race,” “marathon,” “chess game”).
The examples they celebrate – and the ones they never mention.
You don’t control those stories. But you can start to notice them, gently stretch them, and offer new ones that make your agenda feel like a natural extension of who the company is trying to become.
How to start
Listen for the current story. Over the next few weeks, treat meetings and communications like fieldwork. What words and metaphors come up again and again when leaders talk about the business, risk, customers, the future? What story do those add up to? Write it down in a few plain sentences.
Find the bridges, not just the clashes. Ask yourself: how could your agenda be framed as serving that existing story – or as the next chapter of it? For example, “being a safe pair of hands” might expand from compliance to resilience, from avoiding downside to securing long‑term license to operate.
Seed new stories in the places that matter. Start small: a case study in a strategy deck that shows sustainability driving a win the company already cares about; a line in a town‑hall script you help shape; a board or ExCo paper that names your work as central to how the company wins, not as a side‑narrative. Over time, these small shifts accumulate.
You are not here to control the story. You are here to make sure the story is big and honest enough to hold the future you know is coming. When the narrative moves, many individual decisions suddenly make more sense.
