I once heard, 鈥渋f you don鈥檛 tell your story, someone else will.鈥� In public service we are not always consistent or good about telling our story - it could come from the idea that what we do well is just part of our job - the things we should be doing. However, sharing our story is a way to communicate, both internally and externally about a host of different things we may be involved in.
Although we know we should be sharing our stories, we don鈥檛 actually do it. Some of us even think we may not have a story to tell, or working in the public sector, we assume people know our story. Of course, neither one of these things is true - people don鈥檛 know what they don鈥檛 know. We can never assume they are aware of our services, our successes, our outreach, or our impact. That is really for us to us to share.
Stories are impactful and memorable. There are times when I can鈥檛 remember what I did two weeks ago but can remember a story from my childhood, which was a really, really long time ago (I鈥檓 old).
Storytelling is an effective way to communicate with an audience and leave them with something that they can easily remember and share. We tend to tell our story through reports, spreadsheets, charts/graphs. Andy Goodman said
鈥淓ven if you have reams of evidence on your side, remember: numbers numb, jargon jars, and nobody ever marched on Washington because of a pie chart. If you want to connect with your audience, tell them a story鈥�.
The great thing about stories is that anyone can do it, everyone likes them regardless of age, race, gender, etc., and they are easier to remember than facts and statistics. We have Google if we want to look up facts. If we are sharing facts, then we are at risk of them being interpreted in a way that we didn鈥檛 intend.
For example, if a community鈥檚 website says 鈥渢he population of our community is 800.鈥� Does that mean the community is dying or thriving? Stories can help prevent the wrong interpretation.
Sometimes we hear the word 鈥渟torytelling鈥�, and we decide we don鈥檛 know how to do it, or we are unsure of where to get stories from. Stories are everywhere- they come from what you have observed, what is happening around you, and what you hear from others. You can find stories on social media, blogs, podcasts, tv, movies and books.
As a starting point, identify an issue where a story would be helpful. As you create a story think about these things; who is the audience, what is your reason for telling the story, and what do you want your audience to understand, do, or remember because of your story? If you do this well, then people will remember the message and even it share it out!
I challenge you to create a story and infuse it into an event, meeting, presentation, or public message. Through storytelling, you will find that your audience will be engaged in learning more about you and your organization.
Best of luck!