The Good People Research Company has developed a framework for understanding human relationships that can substantively improve how social groups interact. That means it can enable leaders to reduce friction, instill purpose, and engender authentic loyalty in their organizations and society at large.

The framework is built around a concept we call Guiding Narrative®, an internal story we as humans tell ourselves about how the world works and our role in it. We refer to the Guiding Narrative as the only story that matters® as humans make decisions about how to respond in everyday situations based on this story that they themselves develop and curate internally. The Guiding Narrative produces human values and therefore is the ultimate filter for how we interpret and act upon information.

The Good People Research Company produces a podcast called the only story that matters, which applies the Guiding Narrative framework to everyday social, political, business and consumer issues in a way that helps us understand why these issues penetrate and affect our lives the way they do.

The goal of the only story that matters podcast is to normalize the axiom that we as humans socially construct our reality and that there’s not a single point of truth that some people “know” and others don’t. The host is ethnographer Craig Honick of the Good People Research Company, who engages prominent business and political leaders to walk through how the human Guiding Narrative plays a pivotal role in affecting the world around us, and how this understanding can lead directly to solving critical social, political and economic issues. In moderating podcast conversations, Craig draws upon three decades of studying the cultural behavior of social and professional groups, physically immersed in a variety of settings, the experiences that led to the formation of the Guiding Narrative framework.

As a companion to the podcast, The Good People Research Company produces a series of business, political, and personal development briefs, available online, that guide leaders on how to build trust, rapport, and value with customers, employees, partners, and the public. The briefs use the Guiding Narrative framework as well as a framework the Company has developed over years of studying how and why human trust or don’t trust leaders, brands, and institutions.