Methodology | Alif Narrative Intelligence
Our methodology draws on narrative inquiry, sensemaking theory, and organizational psychology to help leaders work deliberately with the narratives shaping their reality.
Methodology
Our work draws on three intellectual traditions: narrative inquiry (the study of how humans make meaning through story), sensemaking theory (how organizations construct shared understanding in conditions of uncertainty), and organizational psychology (how identity, trust, and collective behavior shape and are shaped by culture).
Four narrative moves
Surface: Making visible the narratives that are already operating — the stories that are shaping culture, constraining strategy, or making transformation harder than it needs to be.
Analyze: Understanding what those narratives are doing — whose interests they serve, what they make possible, what they foreclose, and where they come from.
Shift: Creating the conditions for new narratives to emerge — not by imposing them, but by working with the narrative raw material that already exists.
Sustain: Building the organizational capacity to continue this work — so that narrative intelligence becomes a durable capability, not a one-time intervention.
How we work
We work through a combination of individual interviews, group facilitation, ethnographic observation, and documentary analysis. We are not neutral observers — we are narrative practitioners, which means we bring a point of view, and we use it in service of the work.