Narrative Leadership Part 2

Plot and Narrative

As we narrate our lived stories we depict events; as we plot them we demonstrate the interconnectedness of those events. (Cobly, 2001, pp. 5-6). In doing so we enhance the knowledge of our selves as “our life (character) is formed, revealed, and re-created” (Whitebrook, 2001, p. 22). We are, in the words of Polkinghorne (1988) “in the middle of our stories and cannot be sure how they will end” (p. 150).

The plotting of our lives is attended to with an appreciation that “self is not a static thing but a configuring of personal events into a historical unity which includes not only what one has been but also anticipations of what one will be” (Polkinghorne, 1988, p. 150). Here we strive for an “aesthetic finality” where change to our plot is gradual and the “interpretative networks of our daily lives are relatively stable” (Barclay, 1994, p. 59).

The stories we hear and tell as well as the books we read and the theatre we see all have beginnings and endings. It is normal in our context of time and story for what begins to end. This approach is the approach we take to our lived story, making the idea of stability within our identity narrative and its emplotment also a desire for closure, that is, that which we place upon our stories hoping to bring a sense of “order and completion” in our lives (Whitebrook, 2001, p. 113).

The development of identity is not dependent upon any closure we bring to ourselves but by the stories we tell. Through them we create understanding of others and ourselves. This places emphasis on the “pattern or order we can give [our identity] as we reflect on and/or narrate it as it proceeds (Whitebrook, 2001, p. 114).

Like the emplotment of individual narrative, organizational narrative provides stability, continuity, and codification. Because plots evolve and are not fixed, narrative can be malleable, changeable, and open to negotiation. Some narrative plots however, are more open to change than others. Highlighting this difference is emplotment through myth (Abma, 2000).