On the Stories You Tell Today

by Nick Charney

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The most thought-provoking conversation I took part in this week was a one-on-one with Director General of Communications about how technology is impacting the civil service; in fact, I'm still trying to parse out precisely what I think it means.

We were having a discussion about Blueprint 2020 (which, if you haven't heard of yet, is the Government of Canada's latest visioning exercise) and started going back and forth about what we think may be on the horizon; what does the civil service of 2020 look like?

He told me that one of the core differences between the policy and communication worlds is that the communications world is largely concerned with the next 5 minutes while the policy world has the ability to focus on the long game. 

"The stories policy people told 7 years ago, are just starting to come into play now."

There was no panic in his voice, no sense of urgency, and as though it was the natural progression of things. He said it with a certainty rooted in an experience that far outweighed my own and that was in of itself reassuring. 

It made me question my own impatience with change; wonder about the stories I've helped shape; and prompted me to think harder about the stories am about to - because the only thing I'm sure of after that conversation is that the stories you tell today are likely far more important than you think they are.