T is for TRANSFORMATION

As promised, each of my next posts will elaborate on a key element in my R.E.S.U.L.T. approach to storytelling for impact. I’m starting with "T" not only because transformation is arguably the most important part of your story but also because starting with R would ultimately yield "T.L.U.S.E.R." in my list of articles and if I pride myself on one thing in this world, it’s avoiding lousy acronyms. (Just ask me this Tuesday when I talk S.M.U.G. with a local Sierra Club chapter interested in composting.)

To understand the importance of transformation, we need to start with a big picture look at storytelling – and I do mean look. If you were to visualize a story on a graph (something that would have made Calculus 101 so much more interesting), it would look like this, with the X-axis simply marking passage of time while the Y-axis measures the tension and, thus, audience's interest:

(Source: Freeology)

Actually, allow me to rephrase. A good story would look like the graph above. A not-so-good story looks more like this, only without the faint (or feigned!) interest at the outset:

(Source: Shutterstock)

Why? Perhaps you’ve heard before of a three-act structure or, if you’re fancy, a five-act structure or, if you’re scientific, you call it Freytag’s pyramid. (My version, which I’ll share in a post-R.E.S.U.L.T. article, is as easy to remember as breathing.) 

No matter what you call it, the point is that story is structured to hold an audience’s attention. To accomplish that, something needs to happen along the way. The happening unfolds in a way that leads to a change – or transformation. If nothing changes, your audience will start rewriting their name tags. To be more direct, if you simply recount events without any change, congratulations, you’ve regurgitated happenings, not told a story.

Depending on the story, there may be many happenings or there may be one key event. Either way, the story holds the audience's attention and builds interest along the way because, to quote Sam Cooke (and Aretha, Brian and Thomas, Tina, Bobby, even the Fugees, and sampled by Ja Rule, just to name a few), "a change is gonna come."

In a conversation late last year with Shankar Vedantam, host of Hidden Brain, Alan Alda brilliantly captured the power of storytelling and the centrality of change. Recounting what Don Hewitt, creator of “60 Minutes,” would do when people pitched him ideas, Mr. Alda explained:

“…when somebody would come into [Hewitt’s office] and say, ‘I've got a great idea for a segment on the show,’ they'd start to tell about some infraction of the banking regulations or something like that. And he'd hold up his hand and say, ‘Wait a minute - four words: Tell me a story.’ And he felt that that was what made the show so successful all those years. It was number one for a couple of decades at least. 

“And I think he was right about [the fact they used storytelling] being... part of the success of the show. And I think it's because we all tell stories to one another. We listen better to a story. We get involved when we hear a story. And his stories would always have a middle part where the fortunes shifted. And you thought to yourself, 'This isn't what I thought this was going to be about. This is a deeper question, or this - look at the turn this took. Now this is affecting me in a different way.'

"The importance of the middle, I think, is so huge."

When their conversation later turned to STEM and a fact that every teacher and parent of young children should take to heart (listen from 29:50-30:55), Mr. Vedantam noted, “[T]his idea that the obstacle, in some ways, is what makes the story the story is, I think, what you mean by the middle.” This alludes, of course, to the classic “hero’s journey” and the fact that many of our stories follow the same "monomyth" pattern of putting a person to the test and seeing them emerge changed on the other side. 

If you’re telling a story for entertainment, that’s all you need to know about transformation.

But if you’re telling a story to impact law or policy, it's vital that the transformation relate to that law or policy. Your story should illustrate why a law or policy should be changed or, if you are defending an existing law or policy, why it should stay the same. If the existing law or policy (or lack thereof) wasn't a major contributor (if not sole cause) of the transformation in your story, you need to rethink your story.

Whether the transformation is for the better or for the worse, depends on your advocacy ask. For example, after your happenings lead to transformation, your conclusion could sound something like:

• After she endured twelve types of grueling treatments, Option M improved Ms. Patient's health in two short weeks and she is now back to running her local chain of restaurants. That’s why, Administrator Soandso, we should make Option M available statewide.
• After he endured twelve grueling treatments, Mr. Patient died before he could qualify for live-saving Option M. That’s why, Administrator Soandso, we should make Option M readily-available statewide. 
• After a childhood rife with disappointment, access to higher education while incarcerated enabled Mr. Esperanza and 35 other people who were incarcerated to turn their lives around and contribute to a healthier community both in and out of prison. That’s why, Governor Soandso, we should make quality higher education courses available in all of our facilities. 
• Ten years before Law ML was adopted, an earthquake hit and falling buildings killed Ms. Richter and 239 other people. Buildings built to code in every earthquake since have remained intact. Representative Soandso, we must not weaken current regulations. 

I said it before and I’ll say it again: 

Transformation is the crux of both story and advocacy. 

And that’s all I’ll say about transformation – unless you have comments, questions, or other feedback, which I always welcome in the space below.

Next up: Watch your Language!

(Other photo credits: CBS, First Grade Fresh, and RedBubble)