In the social issue space, new narratives pop up all the time as movements, companies, and organizations attempt to grab and keep the public’s attention. How do you know if (and when) the narrative you’ve created for the social issue you’ve chosen to address is the “winning” one?

While narrative is often conflated with hot-button topics and culture wars, no one “wins” by drowning others out. You win only when the public adopts your narrative as the cultural norm for a given issue—and changes their behaviors to reflect that shift.

This strategy has been going on for decades, regardless of whether a narrative is built on facts. More than 35 years ago, researcher and movement observer Bill Moyer pointed out that as public awareness rises, every movement has to contend with oppositional narratives and a shift in the effectiveness of their demand platform.

As you can see from this chart, the price of increased awareness is increased opposition and support for alternative narratives. Moyer wasn’t making a judgment call; this series of events is simply what has occurred time and time again.

Regardless of the social issue they’re working to address, today’s leaders must understand that narrative adoption is not a rational undertaking. Whenever the opposing side on an issue raises a challenge, we often see narratives created to change public opinion but in reality do nothing more than exploit facts or events—taking one fact and creating false context to win public sentiment. And though this approach isn’t new, many organizations and movements still seem taken aback when it happens. Again, this is illustrated in Moyer’s stages of movement development.

Below is a guide to knowing whether your narrative has inspired the public to change viewpoints. We look at it in three stages: Narrative Adoption, Narrative Attitude Shifting, and Narrative Behavior Inducing.

Read the full article about narratives for successful social movements by Derrick Feldmann at Philanthropy News Digest.