The room is never empty when you arrive
Why It Matters
Before anyone speaks, the space already holds something. Narratives are already operating—stories about who is credible, what topics are safe, which experiences get taken seriously and which get dismissed. The room carries expectations, unspoken power relationships, histories of what's been said and not said in spaces like this. Some stories have been told so often they feel like facts. Others have been buried so long they may not surface without care.
If we don't attend to what's already present, we risk layering new stories on top of old narratives without dislodging anything. We may inadvertently reinforce the very dynamics we hoped to shift.
What this looks like
Before the Detroit Education Narrative Collective began gathering stories from students and teachers, they spent two sessions surfacing narratives already circulating: "hard to reach" families, what "engagement" means, who is seen as cooperative versus difficult. They discovered these inherited stories were shaping their questions before they even asked them. Only after naming these operating narratives did they feel ready to listen differently.
Before starting any systems storytelling work, surface the narratives already circulating. Ask: What stories are already shaping this space? Whose interests do they serve? What do they make possible—and what do they foreclose? What has been said in rooms like this before—and what has been left unsaid?
Metaphor and Language Audit
Listening Frequencies Guide
Watch For
Assuming that surfacing "true" stories will automatically displace harmful narratives. Narrative change is slow, contested, and requires strategy—not just truth-telling. Also watch for narratives so internalized that participants can't see them as stories—they just seem like facts.
“Deficit narratives are so naturalized that we often don’t see them as “stories”, but as uncontested facts about how things are.”