Speaker: Andy Goodman

We’ve got a problem: It’s not that we don’t have good stories to tell. It’s that when we tell our stories we burden them with so much jargon and statistics that they don’t work anymore and become unrecognizable. 

Figure out this story:

The role of the famly and community in mentoring alienated youth in the US midwest

  • at risk youth from blended family in farm belt
  • suffers severe head trauma from extreme weather event
  • undertakes high risk journey to distant mineral based urban center
  • accompanied by three homeless adults
  • eventually carries out a hit on a sociopath

What story is this?

The Wizard of Oz

Tell a story first - then start with the facts and the figures.

Stories are how human beings connect - the fundamental currency of human relations

Why is narrative so powerful? 

Storytelling is an integral part of our history, identities, how we remember, and why we give.

History: 

  • We’ve been telling stories for tens of thousands of years
  • Stephen J. Gould: Humans are “the primate who tells stories”
  • We’re all told stories growing up
  • Peter Pan: They don’t grow up because they don’t know any stories and to know and tell stories is to become an adult.

Identity

  • Your sense of self is wrapped up in stories.
  • “You are the stories you want to tell, minus the stories nobody wants to hear”

Memory

  • Stories help us remember
  • When you have facts that you want people to remember, its much more likely that they will remember them if they are contained within a story than if you just gave them the facts.

Generosity 

  • Stories are much better than facts in encouraging people to give money - university of pennsylvania/carnegie mellon study “The impact of learning about the identifiable victim effect on sympathy” (2004)

What makes a good story?

A time-tested structure, telling details, emotion, truth and meaning are the essential components.

Not every story is good!  A boring sequence of events is not a story. 

Protagonist (who the story is about, has a goal) > Inciting Incident (something happens to throw world out of balance) > Barrier (once you get around one, another barrier presents itself…the audience wants to know if they are ever going to get there and starts rooting for them.  24 is this on crack) > Resolution 

Watch your language: most Americans read at a 6th grade level.  

What if a nonprofit was asked to write a nike slogan? “while an occasional disinclination to exercise is exhibited by all age cohorts, the likelihood of positive health outcomes makes even mildly strenuous physical activity all the more imperative”

How do you build a lasting storytelling culture? 

Identify your organization’s “core stories” and make sure every board and staff member knows them by heart.

No one remembers mission statements and core values.

Organizational stories: 

  • The “Nature of our Challenge” Story
  • The “How We Started” Story
  • The “Emblematic Success” Stories
  • The “Performance” Stories
  • The “Striving-to-Improve” Story
  • The “Where are We Going” Story - how is the world a better place?  Look at the election - one person told a clear story and one person did not.