Everything communicates. Everything you say and do and don't do and don't say. Everything is either reinforcing the organization's master narrative or hindering it.
Not all organizations are conscious of their master narrative. Many are not in control of it. But every organization has one. Every story reinforces it or detracts from it.
As a new leader, take responsibility for learning your organization's master narrative so you can be a contributor. Don't expect it to be written on the wall. Don't expect to get at it with one or two questions. Learning the master narrative is going to take real work. It's going to require digging up the keepers of the narrative in corners of the organization you might never think to visit. Visit those corners. Listen. Find the themes. Capture the narrative. Then be a contributor. The organization and you will be better off.
