The Stories We Inherit vs. The Stories We Create

The Stories We Inherit vs. The Stories We Create

I took my daughter to Washington, D.C. recently, and we spent the day learning about history. At one point, standing in front of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, she looked at me and said, “I thought Thomas Jefferson was Black.”

Her reasoning: Hamilton.

In the Broadway production, the founding fathers are played by actors of color, including Jefferson.

I have been thinking about that moment a lot because it parallels how beliefs form inside organizations too.

Many workplace beliefs are not identified explicitly. People absorb them through stories and experiences. They watch how leaders behave under pressure, who gets rewarded, and whether accountability is actually consistent. Those moments become stories, and those stories shape culture far more than leadership messaging does.

This week in This Week in Culture, I wrote about the stories we inherit, the stories we create, and why leaders need to pay closer attention to the narratives forming inside their organizations, without them even knowing it.