R is for RELATABLE

“People are more likely to remember information they get in narrative form. Stories have the unique power to convey new perspectives and thereby lower counter-arguing, increase perspective taking and empathy, and capture and maintain people’s attention.”

Or to sum up in 13 words why I’m so passionate about storytelling:

“Storytelling is the best tool we have for helping people care about issues.” 

Not “one of the best.” Not “among the best.” THE BEST.

But simply recognizing that unique power isn’t enough, which became clear to me as I saw far too many advocacy groups miss major opportunities by taking the wrong approach. To point them in the right direction, I created my R.E.S.U.L.T. framework for storytelling for impact. In this final entry in the R.E.S.U.L.T. series, we'll focus on the R: how to use storytelling to help your audience relate to your issue.

If storytelling is allowing your audience to “walk a mile in another person’s shoes,” your Source makes them willing to put the shoes on, your Language starts them walking, the Emotion you evoke keeps them moving, Transformation in the story keeps them going even when their feet hurt, and having an Uplifting message that conveys that change is possible gets your audience to your finish line: taking action to make that change happen. 

And relating?

Relating is the mile-long course itself. 

In other words, while each of the six elements is critical to effective storytelling for impact, relating is the workhorse of the R.E.S.U.L.T. framework. 

“Relating” means identifying with the issue on a human level and, as a result, caring about the outcome.

Your audience needs to understand what people engaged with your issue are facing and why the solution you are urging matters. That understanding depends on their being able to “see themselves” in the story – and smart advocacy fosters that understanding by finding a balance of two types of spaces in the story:

1) where an audience member can recognize her experience; and

2) where she can insert her experience. 

Finding this critical balance, like everything else in storytelling, requires knowing your audience. Think of “recognizing her experience” as finding common ground with the storyteller – the human involved – and “inserting” as a common path – the human desires involved.

SPACE #1: TO RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES

How easily an audience member can recognize himself in the story depends on how much he sees what he and the storyteller have in common. Recognition can be particularly challenging for advocates who are from or who represent populations whose experiences, cultures, or values differ greatly from those of their audiences.

Compare, for example, a story told by someone who grew up in your hometown near where you lived as a child and who engaged in the same activities as you did growing up with that of a story from someone 40 years older or younger than you who lives in a remote part of a far-away country where you’ve never been.

In the former, you’d likely be instantly engaged and recognize yourself in the situation they describe and perhaps feel similar emotions you’d felt back in your childhood. In the latter, you could easily be distracted by unfamiliar terms and details whose significance aren’t explained and find it hard to relate. Hard to relate, that is, unless you find common ground with the storyteller. Are they telling the story as a mother – and you, too, are a mother? As a person who loves adventure, as you do? As a sports fan? As a fellow fan of [insert your favorite hobby]? As someone who puts their family above anything else in the world?

The beautiful thing about being human is that we all have something in common – it just sometimes takes more digging to find that thing. 

As an advocate, it’s your job to do that digging; don’t put the burden on your audience. Odds are high they can’t – or won’t – make the effort. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it is not your audience’s job to care. It is your job to make them care. Find the common ground and share it early in your story so your audience will “put on the shoes” and start walking the mile. 

SPACE #2: TO INSERT THEIR OWN STORY 

You can allow your audience to insert themselves into the story by recognizing the theme (e.g., loss, grief, power, love, adventure, etc.), providing enough detail to bring it to life and complete the story arc, and leaving enough space for the audience to fill in with their own experience. Too much detail will bore your audience, at best, and shut them out, at worst.

Imagine a mapping app that told you to “keep going keep going keep going” every 5 seconds. You’d turn the app off in less than 2 minutes and never use it again. If, on the other hand, you were following a winding course with too little direction between the start and finish, odds are you’ll be lost before the finish. Find a balance – as always, based on the needs of your audience – to get them from start to finish in a way that allows space for them to feel as if they experienced it personally. 

When your audience recognizes themselves in a storyteller and is able to insert their own experience in a story, they will feel invested in your issue. We humans inherently care about ourselves, which sounds awfully cynical. But the good news within that is when we see ourselves in others, we can feel like their problem is our problem, too. When we are invested, we care. We empathize and that empathy is the magic of storytelling. 

You may be thinking that in the case of policymakers, problems of their constituents should automatically be considered “their problems.” True. But when the topics they must address include everything from accessibility of broadband to zoological veterinarians, smart advocates know that the problems that get attention are those in which a policymaker is invested.

Two important items of note:

1)     Allow your storyteller to be human (i.e., imperfect).

When was the last time you heard or read a story about an eternally flawless person who makes absolutely no mistakes and thought, “Ah, yes! That’s me!” If your answer is not, “Never,” there are articles you should be reading other than this one. Humans make mistakes and those mistakes can make a person even more relatable. Yes, smart advocates know selecting the right source is important. But they also know that “perfect” doesn’t exist. (For legal nerds looking for a great story about not being perfect, read this one about the plaintiff in Lawrence v. Texas.)

2)     Investing is not the same as identifying. 

Keep in mind that the goal of your story is to help your audience connect and care; your goal is not to leave them with the (mis)impression they fully understand another person’s reality. A good story helps your audience walk a mile; it cannot duplicate the experience of a lifetime. 

Courtney Cogburn, creator of 1000 Cut Journey, highlighted this fact in discussing the VR (virtual reality) film she created to share the experience of structural racism by allowing people to walk in the shoes of a Black boy and Black man for twelve minutes. As Dr. Cogburn explained at a recent conference, the goal of the film was not to have people come out saying: “I know exactly what it’s like to be a Black man now.” 

Their hope was for people to come out saying: 

“I thought I understood this. I thought I got it – and I don’t. And now I’m going to listen to you - or data -  and engage in these conversations differently in a deeper way because I’ve let go of this disillusion that I think I understand this problem.” 

RECOGNIZING + INSERTING = INVESTING (NOT IDENTIFYING)

In sum, to be effective, stories you share for advocacy impact must be relatable. Ensure your audience members recognize themselves as you provide an important glimpse into the problem you want them to solve. Make them feel invested. Motivate them to enact a solution while recognizing that but firsthand perspectives need to remain part of the conversation if that solution is actually going to be the remedy impacted populations need and deserve. 

As always, I welcome your thoughts and questions - about this, any entry in the R.E.S.U.L.T. framework series, or any other storytelling challenge you're facing.

Photo credits: Matt Tsir; Laurenz Kleinheider; Omar Lopez; Edu Lauton; Harley-Davidson; and Lucas Neves on Unsplash.