The power of story
Over the last day and a half, I participated in a leadership workshop that made excellent use of story and narrative to engage participants and embed learning. The workshop employed actors to role play common scenarios you might come across as a university manager, and their portrayals were amazingly realistic. We observed and were then asked to analyse the scenarios. We could ask the actors questions about what they were thinking and feeling, which gave unique insight into difficult situations.
I think the stories played out by the actors will stay with me long after the workshop. Much more than Powerpoint slides, they will act as a mental resource when I come across similar situations.
I’ve used stories as an engagement tool in my own work, most recently in a pair of community engagement workshops in North East Victoria. We kicked off each workshop by asking the participants to tell a story about themselves — what do they love about their community, what are they passionate about and, in this case, what experiences do they have with extreme climate? As a way of building trust between people that didn’t know each other and uncovering shared values and concerns, it worked wonderfully well.
Public narrative
I’ve been seeing a lot popping up recently about the power of story as a communication and engagement tool, particularly in relation to climate change and sustainability advocacy. One of the best articulations of the power of story is the idea of Public Narrative, based on the work of Marshall Ganz. Ganz was one of the people that developed the grassroots organising model used so successfully in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. He and his colleagues at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government train community organisers in the use of public narrative as a leadership skill. According to their training guide:
Leadership is about accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty. Narrative is how we learn to make choices and construct our identities — as individuals, as communities, as nations.
The basic idea behind public narrative is that each of us has a compelling story to tell and that story can motivate others to take action. As leaders of social change initiatives, we need to engage both the head and the heart to activate the hands (action). We can develop strategies for engaging the head and use public narrative to engage the heart, as shown below. Stories can engage our values, activate emotions and lead to action.
Public narrative draws attention to a couple of important techniques to increase the effectiveness of stories. First, stories are structured around three key elements: a challenge, a choice and an outcome.
A plot begins with an unexpected challenge that confronts a character with an urgent need to pay attention, to make a choice, a choice for which s/he is unprepared. The choice yields an outcome — and the outcome teaches a moral.
Because we can empathetically identify with the character, we can “feel” the moral. We not only hear “about” someone’s courage; we can also be inspired by it.
The story of the character and their effort to make choices encourages listeners to think about their own values, and challenges, and inspires them with new ways of thinking about how to make choices in their own lives.
Second, public narrative combines three types of story: the story of self, the story of us and the story of now.
The story of self
A story of self tells why you have been called to serve, or what has driven you to this point of trying to create change. It’s a personal story that reveals your motivations and why you are compelled to take a leadership role.
The key focus is on choice points, moments in our lives when our values become real when we have to choose in the face of uncertainty. When did you first care about being heard, about concern with others, about abuses of power, about poverty? Why? When did you feel you had to do something? Why did you feel you could? What were the circumstances? The power in your story of self is to reveal something of yourself and your values — not your deepest secrets, but the key shaping moments in your life. We all have stories of pain, or we wouldn’t think the world needs changing. We all have stories of hope, or we wouldn’t think we could change it.
The story of us
A story of us communicates what we share as a community and why our shared values and experiences compel us to act.
Just as with your story of self, the key choice points in the life of the community are those moments that express the values underlying the work your organization does. The key is to focus on telling a story about specific people and specific moments of choice or action that shaped your community. Tell a story that invites others to join you in this community.
The story of now
A “story of now” communicates the urgent challenge we are called upon to face now. The story of now focuses on the challenge that requires action, the hope for that action, and the choice we are calling upon others to make. In a story of now you call on others to join you in action.
By weaving together the stories of self, us and now, and building in a challenge, a choice and an outcome, it is possible to create compelling and inspiring stories that can motivate change.
There are many examples of this approach and many resources to draw on. Here’s a few of the key resources:
- A blog post by Marshall Ganz on Why Stories Matter
- A longer article by Marshall Ganz on leading change
- The Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Global Change Agents Public Narrative Guide
- The New Organizing Institute’s Toolbox, for going deeper into the practicalities of implementing public narrative and related approaches.
I would be really interested to hear about how you use public narrative and stories to lead change. Drop me a line.
The workshop I attended was developed and facilitated by Primed. Thanks to the team at Primed for a great workshop and for inspiring this post.
