By Dr. Michael Shank

Over the last decade, I’ve been helping local governments tell better stories when it comes to their sustainability work. We know that human stories resonate. And we know that they build trust with audiences and support for climate action more than data or concepts ever could. Research backs this up, too. And yet, we’re still not exercising that storytelling muscle as often as we could.

For those wanting to do more or better storytelling, the secret sauce of it isn’t that difficult to discover. Just google “storytelling tips and techniques” and you’ll get plenty of advice on how to make your story visual, emotional, accessible, human, interactive, and actionable. Storytellers across the internet will encourage you to keep it real, timely, memorable, powerful, personalized, simple, consistent and relevant. And if that wasn’t enough to work with, your google search will suggest that great stories are relatable, believable, evocative, inclusive, unifying, emotive, useful, inspiring, contagious and important.

No pressure, right? That list can feel like a lot, which is why many stories never get out of the gate. There’s too much riding on one story or too many TED talks intimidating new storytellers from ever telling their story.

But most importantly, and a good starting point amid these many recommendations, is to tell your own story. That pulls people in immediately. It’s unique, it’s likely nothing they’ve heard before, it can’t be contested since it’s authentically yours, and it’s an opportunity to build empathy in the audience. Even better, let the story reveal a part of yourself that you don’t normally reveal to public audiences. And that’s the secret sauce: sharing something heartfelt, something honest, something vulnerable.

Once you’ve got that gem of an idea, then we can add some storytelling structure and some neuroscience and behavioral science into the mix, and we’ve got a story worth practicing and later presenting. And no, practice does not make perfect, but it definitely helps. So, let’s jump in.

First, on integrating structure into your story.

There are many ways to structure and map out a story, but most include some of the following ingredients. Storytelling mapping will often include the following: starting with context, then showing the conflict and how it comes to a climax, and then moving towards closure. Other mappers will describe it as first setting the hook or the background, then showing the rising insights into the problem/opportunity, peaking at the ‘aha’ moment which is the major finding or central insight, and then moving into the solution and next steps, which can include recommendations. And many of you are likely familiar with the classic “man in hole” narrative arc, which starts with life being fine until the person falls into a hole, gets out of it, and moves on with life. You get the point.

This may feel like a lot of pressure for a sustainability story. What ‘human in a hole’ story arc is available to us? Plenty, it turns out. For example, it’s not hard to imagine a story of one of our community members who is trying to get to work on time, safely and affordably, via public transit (which is the context, exposition) but isn’t able to do so (which is the conflict with a corresponding climax), which requires local government support to address this need (which is the solution) and provide similar options for others in the community (which is the way forward, the next steps).

More options for storytelling are all around us. Imagine another member of our community is trying to lower their energy burden/bill and live in a healthier home environment (which is the context and conflict) and local government works to address this need by providing weatherization and energy efficiency support to that resident and others (which is the solution and the way forward). You get the point.

The story arc, which is mentioned above and common throughout most media that we consume, is readily available in our work to make communities more sustainable. All we need to do is make use it and find the right storytellers who are willing and able to tell it. And yes, that takes time and trust and relationship-building, but it’s definitely worth it. Better to have community members telling their own stories than us telling it for them. Okay, so now with the structure mapped out, let’s move on to the neuroscience.

Second, on integrating neuroscience into your story.

Unsurprisingly, stories that land and circulate on social media are mindful of neuroscience-based storytelling. There was some forethought that went into the construction of the story before releasing it. And there are plenty of resources on the internet regarding the importance and power of neuroscience-based storytelling. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be a neuroscientist to benefit from this research.

It simply means that we’re similarly constructing the story so that it’s got all the components in there. That’ll enable the story to land with the audience in the way that we want it to. Ultimately, we want audiences to trust us and our story, remember our story, be inspired by our story, and be motivated to act based on our story. And an understanding of neuroscience can help with all of this.

By telling our story carefully and in the following ways, we can tee up a range of physiological responses that help that listener connect with you the storyteller, remember your story, and feel motivated to act after you’re done with your story.

For example, if we want our audience to be more bonded to us and trusting of us as we tell our story, which is helpful in ensuring our story is perceived as legitimate and believable by the audience, a little oxytocin response goes a long way in getting us there. And that oxytocin response is made possible when we share something vulnerable or emotional. It helps in building a bond, a relationship, with the audience.

A second example: If we want our audience to be more focused while we tell our story and remember it long after they’ve left the room, which is helpful in sustaining long term impact as well as remembering the call to action later, then a dopamine response is helpful. And a dopamine response in the listener is made possible when we tell our story in great detail. That’s why the mapping exercise above is so important. It gives both the storyteller and the audience a roadmap for remembering.

A third example: If we want our audience to be positively and creatively engaged in our story, which is mission-critical for sustainability work right now, then an endorphin response is helpful. And an endorphin response is made possible when our story includes humor and happiness. This gives audiences the boost needed to go out and change the world for the better. And while that might seem like a difficult lift in times of worrying climate data and science, it’s possible to find. There’s humor in our everyday experience and it’s up to find it and compassionately reflect it back. We all need it, especially now.

There are other neuroscience tips that are helpful here but these three are a good start. And if any of this language – oxytocin, dopamine, endorphins – needs more researching, just google neuroscience-based storytelling with these hormones listed in the search and you’ll find plenty of data and examples to integrate into your story. It’s out there for the mining.

What is clear is that finding ways to layer these into storytelling can definitely boost a story’s impact far beyond the room it was told in. So that audiences are leaving with the storyteller trusted and the story remembered and ready to be acted upon.

Now, let’s take this science one step further so that we’re crafting a story that can encourage a listener not just to respond differently – as neuroscience-based storytelling supports above – but to be nudged to think and act differently.

Third, on integrating behavioral science into your story.

Ultimately, with our sustainability storytelling, we want to motivate people to take some kind of action after being inspired by our story. That action can be big or small and it can be either implicitly or explicitly prompted in the story. Regardless, when the audience is eventually motivated to take that sustainability action, we’ve (hopefully) already made it relatively simple to do as a local government, in terms of making it affordable, accessible, safe and convenient, etc. At least that’s the aim.

The story, then, becomes the facilitator or prompt for the action, but prior to the story we’ve set up that action for success and we’ve thought through what would motivate the audience to take that action, whether it’s for health, economic, security, or other quality of life reasons. If we’re inspiring people by our story and asking them to act, let’s make sure their first go at it is a positive one so they’ll continue to take these kinds of actions.

Greek philosopher Aristotle thought through this when working on his pillars of persuasion in an effort to find the right mix of logic (logos), credibility (ethos) and emotion (pathos). Having the right balance of these three can definitely aid in storytelling effectiveness. The sustainability community likes to lean into logos and the indisputable facts regarding climate science and trends. It also likes to lean into ethos and the credible scientific community that’s providing those climate data for us. However, we’ve often given short shrift to pathos and the emotional storytelling that helps with persuading and nudging. And it’d be worth investing more in pathos to balance out our reliance on logos and ethos.

If you research what lands in TED talks, for example, and researchers have done this, you’ll see that the most viral ones, the most shared online, lean heavily into the pathos and go lighter on the logos and ethos. The latter two are important, of course, but pathos in storytelling makes up the majority of a viral TED talk. Again, we need all three – logos, ethos and pathos – as all three are essential components to any persuasive story. But it’s time to prioritize pathos and back it up with some logos and ethos. That’s how we can move and motivate people to think and act differently.

All of this is possible and becomes easier the more we do it and the more we support our colleagues and communities doing it. Let’s build a community of storytelling practice, then, so that we’re not alone in our practicing of it. And be kind to yourself as you story-tell. It’s a muscle that requires practice and rehearsal like any other muscle. It’ll get easier the more we do it, use it, and try it. And once it’s ready for primetime, we’ll want to position this story within an overall game plan, campaign or strategy so that when community members are inspired by your story and ready to act, there is an infrastructure already established to facilitate that action. (Feel free to reach out to me to talk more about how your story can sit within an overall campaign strategy.)

The good news here is that we’re already witnessing local government leaders taking new leaps when it comes to storytelling, putting themselves out there in new ways, and storytelling their own sustainable behavior change. So, it is happening and the more people that do it the easier it’ll be for the rest of us to join in.

Going forward, and as you launch your storytelling practice, don’t forget the secret sauce above and experiment with integrating structure, neuroscience and behavioral science into your story. And, most importantly, story-tell something heartfelt, honest, and even vulnerable. If ever there was a need for this kind of sustainability storytelling, it’s now. We need yours out there. Time to tell it.