A framing narrative is a story about how we DECIDE what is good.
A core narrative is about what IS good.
Core narratives – within storytelling for business – are about results. Most of the time, this is what we are doing when we are storytelling. We define what we want, empathize with what the decision-maker wants, and position what we want in terms of what they want.
However, sometimes we’re better off talking about process, i.e., how the decision-maker decides what’s good.
An example of a framing narrative is “drilling for oil.”
In a “drilling for oil” project, the key is to drill in the right place. That means a lot of time and energy needs to be spent up front investigating, testing, doing diagnostics and analytics, before committing to execution. The way we get to the treasure as quickly as possible is by taking more time initially to understand exactly where X marks the spot. It’s a “go slow to go fast” situation.
Another example of a framing narrative is “rite of passage.”
Rite of passage is technically a writer-facing genre from the world of entertainment storytelling. It refers to growing up, boys becoming men, girls becoming women, adults becoming elders, etc. It works in business because one of the ways corporate persons resemble human persons is that both experience growing pains.
In a rite of passage story, a trope of the genre is that the hero must confront a difficult truth to be able to progress to the next stage of life. This notion of “confronting a difficult truth” is a powerful idea because it takes what is often an obstacle in the real world and positions it as a concept. This allows you to address that concept as proxy for the real-world obstacle, and position a difficult realization in a positive way.