This year, I completed a certificate program in Social Impact Storytelling with Georgetown. It’s been a minute since I’ve done anything academic, but it was kind of nice to be back!
They say that screenshotting every single lecture slide isn’t a really effective notetaking method… but I seriously wanted to retain everything. And I have definitely gone back to look over everything as I pass some gems along to my team.
Here are some faves:
⚡️ To make a movement attractive, build its culture of storytelling
⚡️ To navigate the complexities of storytelling, it helps to see yourself as a co-creator. Moderate a conversation with people, rather than owning the narrative.
⚡️ It’s easy to obsess over the micro-impact of storytelling (clicks, volunteers, fundraising dollars…) at the expense of its macro-impact (shifting the narrative on certain issues.) More transactional wins are easier to measure, but it’s always helpful to see things both ways.
⚡️ Using simpler language and minimizing complexity isn’t “dumbing it down.” It’s working with the human brain in a way that helps us better relate to the happenings in the story, and doing it well takes smarts!
⚡️ Choosing curiosity over certainty always makes for the better story