From one to two; The storytelling behind a global movement
We could say that by looking at Greta Thunberg, the teenage environmental activist, the way you tell a story can cause a global mindset to shift. What is it about her storytelling that activated this global movement only fourteen months after she skipped school to sit alone in the first Climate Strike? She offers no solution to the overwhelming and complex problem that is calling for change, but she brings her own unique approach.
Greta is a kid that is doing something ordinary with an extraordinary result. She is telling a compelling story that addresses all of us. She is one voice out of millions. A voice, which became the symbol of a rising global rebellion. She uses language the same way as our ancestors did going back as far as prehistoric times: to communicate complex information important to survival through the effective use of language. Language allows us to organize groups of people to share the news of dangers or opportunities. This is the one ability that has kept us from extinction ages ago, and it might just be the thing that turns it around this time.
What we can learn from her storytelling
What is it about her way of storytelling that resonates with so many, and more importantly, what is it that shifts so many people’s mindsets, changes their habits, their relationship to the world around them and activates them to inspire others to follow them? What can we learn from her approach to storytelling so that we can create change by telling ours?
1. A moral clarion call
She brings a simple truth based on science that speaks to the guts of those willing to act and to those who don’t. By bringing a pioneering model for action, the climate strike, she inspires people to become activists. Her motivation is not only climate change but the protection of the world, its ecosystems and the survival of humanity. She cares deeply for the wellbeing of everyone. She speaks to the best in all of us. She looks past her sadness and anger and strongly believes in the goodness in people. She knows how to get to the absolute core and brings people to understand the urgency in a way that no one is able to misinterpret.
“Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil, and that I refuse to believe!” — Greta Thunberg at the 2019 UN climate action summit in New York
The first important step when telling your story is to make a decision on what it is you want to tell. What is the fuel? What is it that needs to change? What about your story is compelling? What is the main focus of your story? Make it short and try out different versions to try and see which one sticks.
2. Attention to those who resist
For decades activists and researchers have been protesting the same cause. But Greta found a way to speak that is breaking through the impasse. Her piercing weapon is shame and she directs our focus to the doomed future of all children, including those of the resisting leaders.
“You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.” — Greta Thunberg at the 2018 UN Climate Change COP24 Conference
How can you bring movement to a place that seems stuck? What is needed to get people to act? How will you motivate your audience? A good place to start is to look at how you can use emotion to tell your story. Don’t stop at the first thing you find, but dive deep. People are complex, so are their needs. How can you bring a different perspective and energy on fights previously fought?
3. Use of language
What speaks to our guts is Greta’s use of direct, uncomplicated sentences. She refuses to use the language of hope. Her quiet but forceful words are both cathartic and threatening. Her personal purpose is bigger than herself, she fights for our existence. She speaks from gut to gut. She doesn’t stress about who she is talking to and how it will affect them, she doesn’t speak from modesty. She is showing us her most authentic self and it comes from a place of deep empathy to this existential threat, so overwhelming it nearly consumed her.
Can you connect to your own voice? What does your gut say? Can you express your authentic self from a place of connection? Free of self-hatred and self-judgment. This is where you are the most revolutionary. It takes vulnerability to be yourself and to find strength in your identity. When you are able to express yourself, that is where people are more easily able to connect to. Isn’t that how we connect to other human beings, though our self-expression and vulnerability?
Finding what speaks to your audience asks for courage, vulnerability, practice, research, and iteration. Who are you speaking to? Go out and speak to them and find out what the reaction is to your story. What are the words you use, what is the tone you use, how do you build your story, is there something else needed to make your message resonate? Keep your story clear and concise, and focus on one audience and their needs first. You’ll be able to adapt it to a different audience later.
4. Courage
When telling a story that aims to create change not all are willing to hear what you say. You might find opponents, as Greta does. Due to her Asperger’s Syndrome, she operates on another emotional register as many of us, and there is much we can learn from her there. She stays extremely focused and is not impressed by anyone’s fame, neither that of her own. She is not dimming her light or bending down by threats from no one.
Find your focus and get out of your comfort zone. To share your unique perspective feels vulnerable and asks for courage. Step away from your own perspective and ask: what is it about my story that is important for others to learn, what is the underlying human need? Empathize with your audience, even if they might be opponents or even deniers. What are they telling you? They might just be against you because you are actually making a difference.
5. From one to two
The biggest step in growing her audience, Greta says, was going from one to two. Within a year this grew to thousands. She was not the one who started the movement around climate change. But she was the one who acted, spoke up and shared her personal perspective, substantiated with knowledge and science at a time where urgent scientific reality collides with global political uncertainty. Her story and action are what, in this moment of time, resonated with so many. It is what spoke to the hearts and guts of millions who all decided they have had enough.
It doesn’t matter if others are telling the same story or striving for the same change. Your personal perspective, background, personality, insights, and energy is what can connect to others. Show up and share your story, maybe now is a perfect time. Watch, listen and iterate. Your story is living and will grow and adapt to the feedback you are getting. Share it with one and then you are two!
We’re not all going to be Gretas, nor should we aspire to. We all are unique and have our own stories to tell. But we can definitely learn from her storytelling. There are a lot of ancient stories, mindsets, and beliefs that need to be questioned, reevaluated and changed. We are all able to bring a different perspective. If we can focus on our guts first, then the possibilities of changing the world are endless.
