What’s Your Story?

Recently, I led a storytelling workshop for environmental scientists, administrators and activists from around the world. These magnificent leaders were meeting at the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Management Center to pool knowledge and learn how to change their local ecosystems and social systems.

During one exercise, I asked them to prepare a one minute “elevator speech” about four things:

1. Who are you (what is your name)?
2. Where are you from (what country/town/village)?
3. What is your job (what do you do for a living)?
4. Why are you here?

The group were meeting with a pack of environmental journalists that evening, and the idea was to give them the ability to quickly insert snippets of their “story” into the reporters’ heads.

Of course the first time you do something like this, one minute is rarely enough, but they persisted.

The most fascinating component was the sputtering and stuttering that many of them did around their jobs. I was overhearing answers like, “I try to get local fisherman to listen because the environment that they are living in is changing and if they don’t modify…”

Yawn!

During the commentary period, I made a suggestion. When someone asks, “What do you do?” or “What is your job?” simply tell them your job title.

One participant was the “Head of Coastal Disaster Mitigation Division for the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia.”

Another was “Supervising Aquaculturist at the Philippines Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.”

A third was the “Deputy Director of Spatial Planning and Conservation for the Tanzania Coastal Management Partnership.”

Such amazing and descriptive titles! So fascinating to Americans and journalists in particular.

There is power in the words that you use to describe your job. Speak those proudly and assert that this is who you are. Your authority will be asserted and the questions will follow.

Telling Powerfully

The challenge we face in a world swarming with media input is to create and craft powerful narratives that allow us to effect change in our world. External media-based stories can be overwhelming, numbing and pervasive. Crafting and honing stories that stand independent of those sources is a useful beginning.

And one of the stories to start with is that it is possible for an individual to effect powerful changes in the world.

• When Thomas Edison pro- claimed, “I’ll make an inexpensive light bulb,” he started a powerful story.
• When John F. Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon within a decade, he started a powerful story.
• When Martin Luther King Junior said, “I have a dream,” he told a powerful story.
• When Rosa Parks said, “I’m not moving,” she told a powerful story.
• When a young child first says, “I can read that myself,” she is beginning a powerful story.
• When you say, “I will make this work,” you are creat- ing the future for yourself and your community.

After any powerful story is told, there is still more work to be done. Even the most powerful story may fail if it isn’t framed or presented in the proper context, but without a powerful story the old story will persist, and a new path is impossible.

We tell stories all the time.

Why not make your storytelling more powerful? You can learn to listen for the powerful (and the disempower- ing) stories that others tell, to distinguish which stories are useful and which inhibit growth. You can create and craft a more powerful story, learn to deliver and shape your stories more powerfully. You can lay the foundation for colleagues, coworkers, partners and employees to hear these new stories as they develop. Through stories, people, businesses, and organizations can invent innova- tive responses, and change both perceptions and actions.

Together we can move rivers, build buildings, reshape communities, improve education, grow our economy, defuse conflict, create wealth, help the less fortunate, and leave the world a better place for our children and grand- children.

Once upon a time? No. Now is the time to begin.

<To be Continued>

This is part of an ongoing series of articles based on my “Crafting Stories to Change the World” workshop for businesses, non-profits, and individuals interested in making a difference. More information at http://www.markbinder.com/business/

Why Tell Stories?

What makes one person effective and another powerless?

The key difference is in the stories that these people tell. The mover and shaker says, “Money can buy change.” He either has the money to start with, or he finds it. The powerless say, “I don’t have enough money to buy change.” Or even worse, “I’ll never have enough money to buy change.”

One story empowers, the other story cripples. One cre- ates opportunity; the second paralyzes.

The sad truth is that many people believe their own crippling stories. They don’t understand that these narra- tives that they tell themselves and others are just “stories.” They believe them to be “truth.” There is often evidence to “prove” the story is true.
Which is more true?

• “They’ll never listen. They’re stupid. They’re lazy.”
• “They don’t understand. They don’t know. I’ll help.”

Notice the existing stories.

Are you stuck in a story? What are the stories you tell about the world, your business, your organization, your city, your community, your family, yourself? Are these stories useful, inspiring and productive? Do they get to the heart of what your organization is about and what it means to create?

Now take a moment and make up a new, alterna- tive story. One you’d like better. It doesn’t matter if it’s “true”—you will make it true. Reshape the story. Invent a happier ending. A breakthrough improvement. An incre- mental, but sustainable change…

Are these optimistic stories any less possible than the pessimistic ones? What is the difference between a com- munity that says, “It’s terrible, the pollution, the sprawl. Everything is out of control.” and a community that says, “We are doing whatever it takes to make our world safe and give our children better futures.”

<To be Continued>

This is part of an ongoing series of articles based on my “Crafting Stories to Change the World” workshop for businesses, non-profits, and individuals interested in making a difference. More information at http://www.markbinder.com/business/