“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.” Carl Sagan

We are often unknowingly trapped in narratives we didn’t even choose - stories inherited from our family of origin, our community, our place of work, and even from our ancestors. These stories we tell ourselves can make us resistant to change, thus preventing us from tackling the problems we face.

To thrive through this time of planetary crisis we need to weave new narratives, new stories of who we are and how we fit into this planet we call home. We can do this though better understanding what lies behind our beliefs and opinions, and then helping others to do the same.

Contact me if you’d like some help understanding resistance to change amongst your stakeholders as well as creating new narratives for your organisation.

Aside from my consulting, I’ve been working on a drama podcast script which attempts to depict a narrative of a truly connected world, through a humorous interchange between two visitors to Earth from a foreign planet. The creating of this story is a constant reminder to focus my mind on all the cognitive dissonance we carry. Click here to read a version modified for social media.

I’ve also written a middle-grade novel, for children aged 8 to 10, based in a woodland setting and centred around what is increasingly being called the wood wide web - the interconnected network of fungal roots. My protagonist, an adorable but naïve mole, learns that everything is connected and as a result fully enters into a spirit of community, leaving behind his previous individualistic approach. It’s a metaphor for the shift from consumers to citizens which we need to see, if we are to re-establish a healthy space for us amongst the other residents of the planet.