5 years and the blueprint for a new narrative

5 years is one of those milestones that make you stand back and reflect.

This is the third time I’ve hit 5 years working at an organisation. Usually, it’s been marked with some mission fatigue, a feeling that I’ve given what I can, and it’s time for something new all round. But this time, I feel different. Our work at FrameWorks UK has become more vital, more necessary, more urgent.

How we frame our communications makes the difference between whether people feel included or isolated. Whether we build understanding or reinforce division. Whether we build buy-in for a better world or leave people burying their heads in the sand.

And at a time, when the news agenda feels bleak. And narratives that seek to divide us appear to be gaining ground. How we tell a story about the different world that is possible is an urgent and everyday task for all of us.

To inspire people to act, we have to believe a better world is possible. We have to show a better world is possible.

Because if we can’t see it, we can’t build it. And for most of us right now, our instincts are to run and bury our heads in the sand. Everything feels too big, too hard.

But the good news is this: we don’t have to guess how we begin this Herculean-seeming task – we know how to move people.

FrameWorks research uncovers the subconscious, deep-level mindsets that people across the country use to reason about the world around us.

Our research shows some of the mindsets – individualism, fatalism, othering – that can cause barriers to progress. Mindsets which current, dominant narratives seek to exacerbate and exploit.

But our research also shows what it takes to change hearts and minds. This evidence gives me hope. Because it’s the blueprint of how we can work together to create change.

By working across sectors and issues, we can use our communications to be greater than the sum of our parts. To not just move how people feel about individual issues like climate change or the economy, but more fundamentally how people feel about one another and the role of government and society. About the kind of future we want to build for our children.

By using our communications at every opportunity – from campaigning to pop culture – to tap into more productive mindsets, we can build an alternative future, starting one story at a time.