Never Trust a Storyteller
Just ask anyone who's voted for a politician who broke their promise. Or a parent whose six-year-old insisted they never use felt tips on the sofa. Or a devastated partner who believed them when they said it would never happen again.
Good storytellers know how to push your buttons. They can make you laugh, and they can make you cry. They'll have you seething with frustration or overwhelmed with empathy. Furious, dumbfounded, heartbroken and in awe. They'll have you hooked.
Which is why, from broken hearts to ink-stained sofas to unfair societies, GOOD STORYTELLERS WITH BAD INTENTIONS have a lot to answer for.
Nigerian novelist Ben Okri once said, "To poison a nation, poison its stories … anything that affects our perception of the world usually comes in the form of a story. Be aware of the stories that we imbibe. Question them."
Like all great thinkers and writers, Okri recognised the power of storytelling – and the risks of stories in the wrong hands. But just as powerful are GOOD STORYTELLERS WITH GOOD INTENTIONS. Their stories are the key to changing the world for the better.
Why storytelling?
Storytelling and humans go way back – to at least 43,000 years ago, when we painted cave walls with stories about encounters with animals. Since then, stories have taught us everything. From where to find food to which gods to worship to the histories of our families, communities and nations.
Stories persuade us. They tell us what's funny, tragic, beautiful and more. They fill our school playgrounds, political debates, and courts of law. Our sports arenas, newsfeeds, social media, books, songs, films, games and theatres. Even our dreams.
Today, despite our differences across boundaries of country, region, religion, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, income, class, politics and opinion of Coldplay, storytelling is one of the few things every single one of us has in common.
Our knowledge, values and social networks are built on stories. And the stories we tell about ourselves in public and private make us who we are.
What is a story?
You might think that all of the above is just information. Just communication, or 'content'. And you'd be right. But the information that sticks is arranged in story form. The impact of statistics, facts, events, experiences, even emotions, hits new heights when told as a part of a story. And the more impactful the information, the more likely it is to prompt people to feel things, act on their feelings, and develop and alter their thoughts about the world.
The good news is that the form of a story can be quite simple. Philip Larkin thought most stories only need a beginning, a muddle and an end. My personal favourite definition is from Will Storr, who said that every story you'll hear amounts to no more than "something changed."
As they develop, most stories will have characters and a plot or narrative structure. The better ones will have a sense of mood or tone. And the best ones will carry a theme. But even with all these elements packed in, stories need not be long or complicated. Ernest Hemingway famously laid claim to a powerfully moving story of just six words:
For sale. Baby shoes, never worn.
Anyone who thinks their message is too long for social media would do well to remember Hemmingway's short story. However pushed you are for space, fill it with a story, and the information you want to share will go deep and wide.
Sorting good stories from bad
You may have noticed that storytelling isn't anything new or unusual. Stories are everywhere, and they have been for ages. Take YouTube, for instance, where around 270,000 hours of videos are uploaded every day – which is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to cram into the 16 or so hours most of us spend awake.
But as you also may have noticed, a lot of this content is irrelevant, boring, irritating, or even offensive. Not all of it, however. The good news is that the higher-quality stories are more likely to rise to the surface. People only respond to stories that have struck a chord. And algorithms reward the stories that resonate with their audiences the most.
So, if you want your stories to be heard, they need to be good. And for them to be good, they need to hit home with the people they need to reach. This is why the best storytelling in brand, fundraising and marketing communications always puts its audience first.
To make sure I tell the best stories for my clients, most of the questions I ask are about the audience:
What's the story you're telling? (in a sentence)
Who are we telling it to? What do we know about them?
Why should they care?
Why should they believe us?
What do you want them to feel, do and think after hearing this story?
Have you told it before? What's new?
Who else is telling a similar story? Why is yours different?
Why are you telling it now?
If we can answer these questions well, our stories are likely to connect with the people they're intended for. Which means your message will win the right hearts and minds. And your cause will win more support. Audience-led storytelling is the key to making sure your story doesn’t get lost in the crowd.
Storytelling for social good
The lying politician, pen-wielding six-year-old and cheating partner at the top of this article were all great storytellers. They had all invested a lot of time getting to know their audiences, so they knew the right notes to hit for their stories to be believed. They were good storytellers with bad intentions.
Storytelling for social good is about collaborating to create more good storytellers with good intentions. To create stories that people CAN trust. Authentic and relatable stories led by audience insights.
I tell stories that raise funds and connect brands with their audiences. I use storytelling principles to develop creative strategies, propositions, messaging and tone of voice guides. And I run workshops and training sessions to make better storytellers of everyone involved in doing social good. You can find out more about how I help charities and purpose-led organisations with storytelling here.
I’ll end with a beginning - from the narrator in Ursula K Le Guin's fantasy The Left Hand of Darkness, who on page 1, says: "I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling.”
If you have some truths worth telling well, drop me a line at rich@storytellingforsocialgood.co.uk – I'd love to help shape your story.
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Some great storytelling resources:
https://africanofilter.org/uploads/files/How-to-tell-an-african-story.pdf
https://www.frameworksinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Talking-about-poverty.pdf
