The power of stories

Topics: best practice, policy, evidence-based policy, CVS

Last week I blogged about a workshop/seminar I attended at the NCVO on social networking. It was a great event - but Steve Bridger who was also there just posted about it and covered an aspect I hadn't mentioned. And that's the web as increasing accountability, but also as a way to get your point across.

We can all agree, I think, that the web has empowered individuals and invited more scrutiny into the work of organisations.

Charities are not immune from this evolution but they do have a secret weapon: compelling stories.

Some fifteen years ago, I frequently travelled around the UK for Oxfam talking to often quite large groups of the charity’s dedicated supporters about ‘third world debt’ and ’structural adjustment’. Inevitably, I weaved in human stories from the ‘field’ to help illustrate the impact of these reforms on those living in poverty, the intended beneficiaries of Oxfam’s projects.

Intrinsic to good storytelling is the conversation that it generates. Dialogue always (or nearly always!) followed my ‘debt’ workshops.

Blogs and social media provide the best tool set yet to continue the conversation.

I don't think that it's just charities or community organisations that can use compelling stories. No, I think local government can and must do so, too. At the IDeA, one of our most powerful publications has been The Man in the Caravan, which isn't a bunch of bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo but instead is real stories about real people and how changing what we do in local government has made a real and positive difference in their lives.

This change story advocacy is important for a variety of reasons.

1. It shares good practice among practioners in a human and understandable way
2. It demonstrates to Government the importance of empowered local government
3. It shows users and citizens what is possible in their locality - they can use this as a way to access or request services or as a way to hold their local council accountable if services are delivered in the same old, untailored, inefficient way.

In my work, I'd love to have more of these stories, but they are notoriously difficult to gather and sometimes to articulate. And I agree with Steve Bridger on this 100% (so I'll quote him again).

Blogs and social media provide the best tool set yet to continue the conversation.

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