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Storytelling as Best Practice
How it Works
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Two weeks before the workshop, each participant
receives an email with a homework assignment
Think about 2-3 stories that illustrate what your
organization does, how it makes a difference, or
why its worthy of attention and support. Now
write down, in a sentence or two, a brief summary
of each story.
Those summaries will be emailed to Andy Goodman
to help him tailor the workshop to your group.
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The workshop begins with a 45 minute presentation
that asks and answers four questions
What makes narrative such an exceptionally
powerful tool?
What are the structure and qualities of a good
story?
What is the role of stories versus data when the
goal is education or persuasion?
How can you build a lasting storytelling culture?
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After a brief QA session, participants are ready
to start writing their stories.
The process begins by taking one of the ideas
submitted by email and using a story structure
template to build a complete outline.
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Once they have completed their outline,
participants began writing a first draft of their
story (with a limit of 750 words.) We allocate
one hour for outlining and writing.
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During the writing session, Andy holds open
office hours for one-on-one consulting with any
participant who has questions or concerns about
his or her story.
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After the writing session (time permitting), we
reassemble into small groups of 6-8 participants
each. Over the next hour, participants read their
completed drafts to their colleagues and receive
feedback on the effectiveness of their stories.
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For the last segment, the full group will
reassemble. Now its time for a few of the
participants to share final drafts with all of
their colleagues.
(This segment can run 60 to 90 minutes, depending
on the size of the group.)
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This is always the most powerful part, because
now you get to hear well-crafted stories.
Stories about how your organization began, or how
it overcame early setbacks
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accounts of emblematic victories, remarkable
examples of transformation, or even defeats from
which worthwhile lessons were drawn (and later
applied.)
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For some, the storytelling session is an
opportunity to hear your organizations stories
for the first time and to learn more about their
colleagues.
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For each storyteller, its a chance to exercise a
new (or freshly honed) skill in front of a live
audience.
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These are some of the nonprofit organizations
that have completed Storytelling as Best
Practice and are now using stories for advocacy,
fundraising and internal training.
Here are four examples of how other recent
graduates are applying their storytelling
skills
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Turning Point partners with agencies in 21 states
to improve local health care. When members of
those agencies met in Denver for an annual
conference, Turning Point gave them this booklet.
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Environmental Defense, a national organization
with over 250 employees, devoted an entire day to
collecting and refining stories.
The staff developed 87 stories that will be kept
in an organizational story bank for future use.
The twelve best stories were published in this
booklet, which is now available to new staff
members, trustees, donors, and the public.
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At one of its annual conferences, LIFP gathered
250 grantees for a half-day of storytelling.
The group storytelling session was videotaped.
LIFP then incorporated several of the stories
told that day into an online story bank with
audio and video files for all site visitors to
see and hear.
www.lifp.org/html/spotlight/stories.html
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Storytelling as Best Practice was presented as
a keynote speech to 500 members of Faith in
Action at their 2004 annual conference in
Washington, DC.
The next day, about half of these members made
visits to Capitol Hill, many using this
opportunity to tell stories.
One Representative was so moved by the stories he
heard, he read four of them into the
Congressional Record from the House floor.
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For references, pricing, and more information,
please call Andy Goodman (that guy on the left)
at 323.464.3956 or send email inquiries
to andy_at_agoodmanonline.com
Thank you.
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Special thanks to
for allowing us to photograph their storytelling
workshop and use those images in this
presentation.
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