Story Driven: You don't need to compete when you know who you are

by Bernadette Jiwa

We have become reactive to the competitive landscape, rather than responsive to the needs of our communities—those people we hope to serve. We are so focused on the competition, or even the threat of it, that we’ve forgotten to double down on what makes us and our work unique and valuable.

She may not always get to choose the work, but how she does it is a choice. Her decisions and actions reflect the truth about the company story.

Whether it’s articulated or not, every business is driven by one of two philosophies. A company is either competition-driven or story-driven.

The leaders of story-driven companies (big and small) have clear visions for the future they want to see, and they inspire their teams to join them on the journey to creating that future. They often succeed by doing things that can’t be measured or are not immediately scalable.

Great companies have something in common: they don’t try to matter by winning. They win by mattering.

The story you live and the identity you inhabit are always a choice.

By building a story-driven company, Musk is playing what Carse describes as ‘an infinite game’. An infinite game is played ‘for the purpose of continuing the play’.

For them, success is now—the alignment of thoughts, beliefs, intentions and actions. The journey is part of their success.

Like a master weaver, we subjectively select threads from what we remember of our past and combine them to create a narrative that reflects our present priorities and future goals.