Meaningful stories:advocating issues through our stories
"Meaningful Stories" is a blog dedicated to the use of storytelling to promote awareness of and advocacy for the issues that either affect or can be affected by libraries.
So what is a meaningful story? Simply it is a story that when told effectively relays an important or deep meaning to an audience (of one or a multitude). Meaningful stories can come in all types of formats (i.e. parables, tales, spring board stories, etc.) and can cover any topic that has an important or deep meaning to the audience or story teller.
So why is this important to us now? Well, telling a story is something that many libraries are great at when it comes to connecting with the people we serve in our communities. Libraries are even good at teaching other members of the community how to connect with people to tell good stories. However, one story libraries do not always tell well (i.e. meaningfully) are our own stories and those of the issues that affect us or that we can affect.
In these times of decreased resources and increased competition for service provision, libraries must be able to effectively connect to their communities in a more meaningful way. Meaningful stories are an effective way to communicate the issues that are impacting our abilities to serve our communicities (i.e. budget impacts, increased demands for service) as well as the impact libraries have on the issues and needs of the community. Simply communicating cold budget totals and quantitative data alone are not always enough to meaningfully connect, ...to meaningfully communicate the story of the library and its issues to its community. It is critically important that the stories we tell about ourselves and our issues be as meaningful as those we tell to children if it is to be truly heard and make an impact on the people libraries serve.
This blog will explore how different types of meaningful stories can be used to effectively connect and communicate the library and its issues or those issues the library can impact to the community. If you have a story to share, a story that needs to be told, or a tip for telling a meaningful story about your library's issues or advocating for an issue that the library can impact, please feel free to share it with others through this blog. I look forward to hearing from you.
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I was glad to find this posting from last December when searching for discussions surrounding meaningful communication. This is something that all not-for-profit organization need to be taking to heart in all their efforts, whether internal or external.
People within organizations, especially ones with a community-focused mission, often fail to connect deeply with their intended audiences. This isn't from lack of expressing stories or information.
Most commonly the issue is a lack of understanding what the real story of the organization and its impacts are. As you mention, statistics and data don't move people to action, while that is true, simple telling an impact story (typically something emotional), while moving, often doesn't move people very far. If you want to move people in a way that actually changes behavior you have to tell the entire story, not only for the organization but for its relevance to the individual listening to it.
Its one thing to make someone feel empathy for someone else, its another to make them understand the important connection to themselves and how their own behavior and choices can directly generate impact.
Tony Grob (Gigantic Planet, LLC)
Thanks for the thoughtful commentary. I am happy to help as needed.
Larry White