Daily Times

Daniel Kahneman – author of Thinking, Fast and Slow – says, “a compelling narrative fosters an illusion of inevitability”. Dwell on this for a moment – if a narrative is persuasive enough, it is bound to be taken as the truth regardless of fact! Now, look around you and see how many narratives are being peddled at you; left, right and centre. A lot, because in this complex and globalised world, narrative building is a common refrain. Moreover, it has taken even more significance since the meteoric rise of social media. The policy making elite has also gotten wind of the potential of narrative building in the new world and is keen to use it to its own advantages and harness its power. Can narrative building really help push policy aims? Yes – to a degree and if used wisely.

As previously discussed, policy is defined as a galvanising vision of the future end state and is achieved by selecting one particular direction amongst a host of others. A coherent narrative is the crucial support which can make policy aims even more acceptable to the intended audience. And the best part about building a narrative? It doesn’t concern itself with the truth too much as it is not a science! This is because science, not unlike narratives, needs to spread to become accepted, but science exists within a prescribed system that works on validation of findings and publication of evidence. Narratives do not! That is why narratives not only escape the rigour of science but are also more convincing than scientific knowledge.

So, what if narratives stretch the truth and escape the scrutiny of science? Why is that important? Because as much as we would like to believe that human beings decide and accept information after carefully and rationally scrutinising it, they don’t! It is mostly an interplay of emotions and a range of cognitive biases that allow people to make up their mind about something. Hence, narratives play a critical role in policy formulation because they become central to the social tenets and cultural practices that guide individuals to align with the stated policy objectives.

Even if a relevant narrative is crafted correctly, the timing of the narrative maybe the difference between success and failure of the policy it is trying to support

Furthermore, if narratives have to efficiently support the policy, they must be setup suitably. Using the paradigm of Narrative Policy Framework, the London School of Economics suggests that this can be done in a five-step approach. One, communicate the policy in the form of a story which uses only some of the available information. The general population has little capacity to understand policy in any great detail thus it must be explained to it in simpler and shortened terms. Two, purposefully add the correct setting to the policy information. This could be in terms of evidence, geography, laws or the acknowledgement that not all audiences will behave the same way towards a policy statement. Three, establish the plot; i.e. frame what the policy is trying to achieve or what problem it is trying to solve. Four, and most importantly, gravitate your policy around characters such as a hero or villain to evoke emotion from and for the intended recipients. Five, state the moral of the story. These can come in many forms such as strategies, awareness or calls to action and describe the cause of, and solution to, the policy problem.

Even if a relevant narrative is crafted correctly, the timing of the narrative maybe the difference between success and failure of the policy it is trying to support. While it may seem equally beneficial to establish a narrative either before or after launching the policy, anecdotal evidence suggests that the best gains are to be had if the narrative building takes place prior to the rollout of the policy. The underlying reason for this preference is that individuals tend to lean on their cognitive biases when presented with the conflict of cognitive dissonance. And what better way to ensure that cognitive biases align with the policy to be established than build a powerful narrative beforehand!

In the annals of history there is one powerful albeit negative example of efficient narrative building. That carried out by Adolph Hitler to support his policy of the master race! And it shows what narrative building can do if fallen in the wrong hands. Hitler followed the five-step approach with extreme precision! First, he manufactured a story about superiority but using incomplete and selective information. Second, he used religion and geography as a specific setting for this discourse. Third, the plot of Hitler’s narrative focused on ensuring dominance of the Aryans. Four, and most crucially, he painted the Jewish community as the villain of the piece to incite hatred for them among his own cadres. Five, the moral of his story? The final solution! Eradication of all Jews in the geographical grasp of the Reich. All this even before he became Führer and officially launched his policy of the one master race! Hitler wrote in his book Mein Kampf, “the great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.” Proving that indeed narrative building done not necessarily need to rely on the truth!

In the end – governments, corporations or militaries will do well to understand the positive and critical role narrative building plays in the search for efficient policy formulation and execution. Narrative can help or hinder the domain of the policy makers and it is about time that they learnt that “sometimes reality is too complex, and stories give it form”. This from Jean-Luc Godard, arguably the most influential French filmmaker who witnessed the wrath of World War II with his own eyes. He should know a thing or two about narratives aiding policy objectives!

The writer is Director Programmes for an international ICT organization based in the UK and writes on corporate strategy, socio-economic and geopolitical issues