It can be tempting to take the O+A=R model and use it to examine others and much more confronting to use it to examine oneself. It is vital for any individual/organisation engaging with communities to be willing to interrogate their own stories of themselves as well as the community.

People who position themselves as “change agents” for a community must be the most willing to reflect on their own narrative and emotional patterns – and open to change them. This is especially so for those who possess power and influence within a community or over a community.

What we see repeatedly also is that there is always a surprising “parallel process”. The patterns of stories, emotions and actions in a community can parallel the patterns of stories, emotions and actions of the person working with the community.

For instance, the Story of Scarcity that we found on the ground among members of the community who felt they could not care for their personal health because they believed they did not have enough personal resources paralleled the Story of Scarcity we found among members and leaders of community groups and public institutions who also felt their care for the collective’s health was limited by having insufficient resources from the system. When multiple stakeholders at different levels of the issue perpetuated this Story of Scarcity, everyone got stuck. Things only shifted when stakeholders at the table were willing to open a conversation to reconsider their Stories: Were there pools of resources out there that had never been considered? Were they themselves a valuable resource that deserved to be better supported?

If our parallel narrative patterns are healthy ones that lead to healthy actions, our process of working together can be surprisingly fluid, productive – even enjoyable. If our parallel narrative patterns are unhealthy ones that lead to non-actions and repeated stuckness, our process of working together can feel constantly grinding, unproductive – and often painful.