On day three, I attended one of the ‘buckets’ on Moving beyond logos, egos, siloes and haloes: Reimagining our own systems, organisational and governance structures in the pursuit of collective action and the good society.

‘The manifesto for change is our vision,’ began the Resonance Network team, who convened the session. ‘Governance is how we will make that vision a reality.

‘When we talk about governance, people often think about government, structures and proposals… but how do we model the behaviour in the world that we want to see? Governance.. is about relationships. It’s how we show up together, how we decide to be together, the agreement between humans and communities, and how we work together as human beings.

‘Storytelling is really core. It’s what gives us the agency to make decisions.’

We were then all instructed to perform a slow, rhythmic breathing exercise to music – which genuinely helped to relieve the room’s anxiety and bring more calm. There was then an image demonstrating the ‘iceberg’ of things we carry with us:

• At the bottom – below the water – are narratives: Taught in many ways (families, our education systems, cultures, communities), they are made up of little stories. With those, we carry forward all the assumptions about how we move through the world
• On top of that are day-to-day decisions: Some are just out of habit, others are kneejerk.
• Practices: A bit more intentional
• Norms: As we take all these decisions individually, together and at the community level, these ideas are turned into norms, and regulated in certain ways – through laws, through policies, or just social pressures

Norms are ‘usually where we start the conversation, as it’s the governance that we can see. We talk about policy shifts or changing laws, but… we’re hoping to get to the juicy part of the iceberg, where those narratives and assumptions are coming in, so that we can actually make the shifts that the manifesto talks about.’

All attendees were sat at tables and asked to divide themselves into groups of three, and play with the art supplies in the centre of the table. The prompt: You have been transported 100 years into the future, and the manifesto of change is a reality. These are the norms that now govern our world. What are the narratives that we are shifting within ourselves that now govern that world?

Our table spoke of dreams of moving from country to country without a passport, ‘because we’ve learned as a people that we are all one’. The natural environment is respected, resources are for the whole and accessible without question; leadership means caring for the environment and ensuring that children can run around barefoot; access to medicine and healthcare is free and uncompromising; youth voices are in leadership, neurodivergence celebrated and understood.

Storytelling in personal ways such as this is an ancient technology that all cultures around the world practice. ‘It’s in these personal stories that we make up the collective narratives that shape our culture,’ said the convenors. ‘When we think about truly shifting the power… [we need] to talk about it from a more foundational level, and start really shifting narratives.’

Resonance Network have re-posted this piece into Spanish – you can read this here. 

Amy McGoldrick is the Head of Marketing, Advertising and Events