A prominent scholar and practitioner in strategic communication said to a conference of military communication specialists, "The enemy is fast, flexible, and more attuned to the cultures where they operate. We talk Narrative, but Narrative is where they beat us." While the 'we' and 'they' in this context were adversaries in the war of ideas regarding violent extremism, they could have been any organizations in a competitive situation. Some organizations are simply better at telling their stories and aligning words and actions better than others.My view, drawn from experience, is that organizations lose when their attempts at 'narrative' are narrowly focused on what stakeholders want, and then force fed to organizational members whose behaviors remain unchanged (and who might reject the message). That's not how one properly uses 'narrative.' So what is proper? I sift through varying definitions of narrative in this episode and offer my own construct -- that there are two types that serve vastly different purposes.