CharityVillage® Research: Communications: How stories can influence people

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How stories can influence people
By Pattie LaCroix
July 28, 2008
Saving the biological diversity of the world’s food producing seeds, achieving international development funding commitments from the G8 countries, slowing the pace of climate change, addressing youth homelessness, or raising awareness about HIV among young girls are all complicated issues. So many organizations still attempt to convince their audiences that they should pay attention to their agenda or their point of view. Often this is done by bombarding people with mind-numbing statistics, feelings of guilt or fear, or "the sky is falling" predictions.
I would bet that very few people understand or can integrate into their daily lives language like food security, harm reduction, or global equality. So many organizations have become entrenched in their well-honed positions. While they are so busy telling people what to think, they have truly lost the art of listening.
As Annette Simmons observes in her wonderful book, The Story Factor, “Just as knowledge can become wisdom, so do facts become a story. A subtle yet powerful shift occurs when you seek to influence people to make wise decisions rather than ‘right’ decisions. When you decide to awaken sleeping wisdom rather than convince others you are right, you will produce a much more powerful experience for the both of you.”
Stories reside in our lives when the teller and the listener co-create their meaning. This meaning is also created through the experience the listener brings to hearing your story. But your stories will, unfortunately, remain diatribes when information is pushed out using language that is inaccessible and when you seek to convince rather than influence. Here is a great exercise you might want to try when shaping your story and key messages:

Step 1: Craft a verbal story that you wish to tell to elaborate on your work, your mission, a specific campaign or project, etc.

Step 2: Bring a few people together who are members of your target audience.

Step 3: Ask them to listen to your story.

Step 4: Ask them to discuss the story amongst themselves, while you observe this conversation. Their discussion is shaped by exploring questions like: What did you hear? What did this story mean for you? What, in particular, got your attention? Etc.

Step 5: Once the group shares their reflections, ask them each to put forth a title for your story and explain why they feel their title fits.

Step 6: Once all of the titles are put forth and discussed, ask the group to pick one for your story and explain why they feel this fits best.

I have repeatedly facilitated this exercise in my storytelling workshops and it is absolutely amazing how frequently storytellers are surprised with this feedback. Inevitably, listening through this exercise creates new levels of meaning for their narrative, unearths assumptions, and brings new relevance into their story. What essentially happens is that their stories become more powerful by listening to how people hear the story, rather than by focusing on the telling of the story. It may sound like a subtle shift, but it actually is quite powerful and holds the potential to awaken “sleeping wisdom”.

Given the magnitude of the issues that social sector organizations are addressing day in and day out, a little storytelling wisdom could go a long way.

Pattie LaCroix has provided strategic leadership in crafting integrated communications and fundraising strategies to nonprofits for more than a decade. As CEO of Catapult Media she is passionate about the power of storytelling in engaging your audience and building support for your work. You can reach Pattie at www.catapultmedia.ca.