Over the past few months, the Change team has been writing about the brain science behind why stories matter, the types of stories we can tell, and how to structure stories. The fifth and final part of our storytelling series focuses on how to embed story collection and dissemination into your organization’s communications, and share stories that move your audiences. By using practical tools and existing touch points, organizations can embrace storytelling as a core part of their identity and operations, foster a culture that values and nurtures storytelling, and lift up stories and voices that deserve to be heard.
Here are our recommendations on how to build the foundation for your storytelling efforts, and ethically collect and share stories that advance your goals.
Identify the types of stories and messengers you need to meet your communications goals and move your audiences
Start by asking yourself: what does success look like for your organization or campaign, and who do you need on your side to do that? What do those stakeholders value, who do they listen to, and what channels and mediums do they use to get their information? Whose voices are being shared or left behind? Ask what structure works best for your story and that can easily guide the audience to understand the issue area you’re championing. Based on those answers, identify the types of stories you need to lift up, who the storytellers will be, and which channels to utilize to reach your core audiences.
Build the habit of capturing stories
Storytelling is a muscle that needs to be developed across the organization. Wherever you are, and whenever you hear a good story, even if it’s just a small, incomplete one, capture it. Keep a paper and pen handy, type it into your phone, or leave yourself a voicemail. As part of your organizational practice, use existing touch points to collect stories: ask staff or fellows as part of your meeting, source stories through social media posts, or event follow-up emails and phone calls. Additionally, familiarize your staff with why we lean into storytelling to achieve impact, what makes a good story, the types of stories that you can tell, and how everyone is a storyteller.
Implement a story-gathering process that works for you
Identify who will manage the storytelling process on staff, and create a method that makes it easy for you to capture and and track stories – for example, an excel sheet that identifies the types of stories you’re after, the individuals who you’d like to reach out to, and who will connect you to them. Use this mechanism to track outreach, follow ups, context about the storyteller, and when interviews are scheduled. Utilize your existing systems (Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, etc.) to create a dedicated story bank – an active database to organize the stories you’ve collected so you’re more prepared to incorporate them when you need them, whether that’s at events, when speaking to the press, or launching a campaign. Through existing touch points – internal and external meetings or team check-ins – identify additional stories and storytellers, and make sure your team has access to your storybank.
Use an ethical storytelling process to collect and share stories
At Change, we follow Immigrant Rising’s Storyteller’s Bill of Rights and Resonance’s Ethical Storytelling model to make sure we are telling stories in a way that empowers the storyteller and their voice. With your goals and audiences in mind, prepare questions that get to the “why,” “how,” and “what” of the story. Adjust questions according to the person you are speaking with and the conversation to capture what is unique about them and their experiences. Based on your goals, how your audiences receive information, what the storyteller is comfortable with, your timeline and budget, and what would make the story most impactful, identify the medium you want to use – written, photos, video(s), audio, or testimonials – to bring the story to life. Be prepared to meet storytellers where they are emotionally and physically – some people may be comfortable jumping right in, while others’ stories may bring up past trauma and need to be told slowly, and in person. Be upfront about how you plan to use the story, what the process will be to get their approval, and that they are the owners of their story; they have the power to change it or even ask you not to use it. Ensure that the storyteller reviews and signs a story release form, acknowledging and agreeing to how their story may be used, and giving you permission to share their story across a variety of channels. Compensate storytellers for their time, and keep them updated about where you are in the process of sharing their story.
Strategically disseminate your stories
Using an editorial calendar, map out which stories you want to share, when, and through what channels based on your audiences and goals. Prepare your assets, notify your internal stakeholders and storytellers, and encourage them to amplify the story through their own channels by developing and sharing assets – sample social media posts, email language, and visuals – with storytellers, key partners, messengers, and allies to help amplify the stories.
Follow up and evaluate your efforts
Reach back out to storytellers, thanking them for their time and ensuring that they receive compensation. Evaluate the types of stories you collected, the mediums you used, if they reached your target audiences and furthered your goals. Additionally, check in with your staff on how the process was for them, and what they’d like to see moving forward. Based on this, continue to adjust your storytelling efforts.
Stories bring our work to life, and we must remember that the storytellers are sharing their life experiences to advance our causes. We hope that these guiding principles help you incorporate storytelling into your organization through a process that is both organic and true to you. In case you’d like to revisit parts 1-4 of our storytelling series check out: