If you need some storytelling inspiration, look to Angela Patton. In March, I was facilitating a virtual storytelling training for 159 nonprofit leaders across the country including Patton’s organization, Girls For A Change (GFAC). To prepare, I pulled on my proverbial headlamp and mined each organization’s website for great stories or great storytelling opportunities. When I got to GFAC, I struck gold.  

On the front page of their site is a poster for Daughters, an award-winning documentary co-directed by Patton, which tells the stories of four girls participating in GFAC’s program, Date With Dad. I decided to watch a few minutes of it for research, but I couldn’t turn it off.  

As phenomenal as this film is (put it at the top of your list!), I didn’t think that I could go into a training and tell 158 other organizations, “You should all make Netflix documentaries using the power of dramatic narrative. It’s easy!” Ummm… no. 

While Daughters was her directorial debut, Patton has been putting storytelling to work for over a decade. In her 2012 TedTalk she shared stories that would become part of the documentary. In it, she creates vivid moments that connect deeply to the hearts and imaginations of the audience. During that training last month, I showed a clip of Patton’s TedTalk and asked her to share how storytelling has played a role in her work.  

I was spellbound by her response, so I asked her if she’d be willing to share her experiences in this month’s newsletter.  

Kirsten: What role does human-centered storytelling play in your work?  

Angela: Storytelling is at the heart of everything we do. At Girls For A Change, our guiding principles are: Tell Compelling Stories, Inspire Real Action, Dream of Black Excellence, and Dial up the Fun. Our mission is simple: “Prepare Black girls for the world, and the world for Black girls.” We center Black girls in community and co-create stories with them, always following their lead. It’s about amplifying their voices and ensuring their stories are shared on their terms. I also share my own lived experiences, and together, we learn, grow, and heal from each other’s stories. The world deserves to hear the stories they feel ready to share. 

Kirsten: How has telling this kind of story changed you, your work, or your audiences?  

Angela: Filmmaking is just one form of storytelling, but it has given us the opportunity to bring Black girls’ truths to a broader audience. We are opening doors into rooms where these conversations were often missing. We’ve seen audiences deeply moved, with people sending letters, making donations, and offering support because they saw themselves in the girls’ stories. This work resonates with so many because it’s rooted in family healing and love—universal emotions that connect us all, regardless of background. 

Kirsten: I have seen your TedTalk, Daughters, and the videos on your website. Are there other ways you use personal storytelling?    

Angela: Storytelling is woven into everything I do. It’s in pitch decks, at events, and in conversations to recruit girls and their families. We use storytelling to celebrate girls and their journeys at the end of our programs. It’s the way we connect, honor, and uplift them throughout their time with us. 

Kirsten: What have been the barriers or challenges in sharing stories?    

Angela: Not everyone will get on board or agree with your story. This is part of the work of movement-making. Many don’t want to hear our stories, and it can be challenging to get people to see and resonate with Black stories—let alone support them. But if you stay grounded in the belief that your story matters, and stay the course, you will end up where you need to be. 

Angela Patton

Kirsten: So many nonprofits and foundations fall into deficit framing in their stories—where we meet people at a low point and the programs lift them up. Your stories don’t do that. You introduce girls in your stories using asset framing. We meet the girls first as beautiful people with skills and aspirations. Is that something that you did naturally? Did you learn about that? Or both?   

Angela: At Girls For A Change, we introduce girls with their joy, dreams, and talents. This approach is something that comes naturally to me. From a young age, I saw the media—TV, billboards, magazines—and recognized that they often didn’t represent me or my community. What was being shown wasn’t true, and I wanted to change that. I’ve always fought against that narrative. When I started GFAC, I quickly realized that the girls we serve also had their own stories, stories filled with hope, creativity, and resilience, and it was my job to be an active listener. I understood that these stories were part of a broader picture, and that the world needed to hear them. It wasn’t just about us telling stories—it was about everyone being involved in the process. Building trust is essential to uncovering the real story. Without that, we would miss the richness and depth of who these girls truly are. 

Kirsten: Any advice for leaders or comms peeps when it comes to gathering and telling stories that really bring you inside moments with people?    

Angela: Building trust is paramount. When someone shares their story with you, it’s crucial to understand that they are not just a prop for your narrative. Don’t pigeonhole them into a box. Ask yourself: How can you offer something of real value in return for their trust? For Daughters, we spent time listening, building trust, and then finding opportunities to offer support. We started an Education Fund, we check-in regularly, offer stipends for speaking engagements, and share resources. Even if it’s not financial support, there are always doors you can open and resources you can share. Patience is also key—it’s a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time to build the relationship and truly understand what they need. Listen closely and be patient. You can’t rush trust. 

To learn more ways to create and share impactful stories, register for our “Storytelling: Tapping the Power of Narrative” Workshop on May 13, 20, 27, and June 3.

In Case You Missed It: This month’s ICYMI was written by Andy Goodman in November 2020. In it, he explores where there is room for improvement when it comes to accessibility for all in meetings.

Creating an inclusive atmosphere in which everyone present feels not only welcomed but valued can be challenging under the best circumstances. Remove the opportunities that come naturally when meeting in person – one-on-one chats, reading body language, sensing a group’s energy level – and it can feel almost impossible. In our report, “Unmuted,” which looks at the challenges videoconferencing presents, we heard this lament frequently from meeting leaders and facilitators.

Consequently, you might expect that those responsible for conducting videoconferences would use every tool and technique available to enhance inclusivity, and our research confirmed that they are…to some degree. But when it comes to using the tools specifically designed to include participants who may have difficulty seeing what’s being shown, hearing what’s being said, or fully understanding the language being spoken, most videoconferences miss the mark by a wide margin. Consider the responses below to a question in our survey about efforts to enhance accessibility:

When only 12% of respondents reported that they observed webinar or webcast leaders “frequently” or “always” taking steps to create greater accessibility – and that’s the highest score across all categories of online convenings – clearly we are not prioritizing these activities. And what’s even more disappointing is that the most popular videoconferencing platforms all have a variety of accessibility tools readily available.

During the last week of October, we visited five videoconferencing platforms our survey respondents reported using most frequently to learn exactly which tools they provided. The built-in choices are abundant and include tools such as closed captioning, recordings with transcripts, high contrast mode, screen readers and magnifiers, and more. (Please note that the options available to your organization may vary with your level of service.) If you haven’t done so already, take the time to learn your options: here are links to the pages specifically dedicated to accessibility tools for Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, and Google Meet.

Your efforts at enhancing accessibility don’t have to end there. PowerPoint can increase accessibility when slides are part of your convening. Thanks to recent improvements by Microsoft, you can now set up your PowerPoint presentations to provide real-time subtitles for the speaker’s narration in either the speaker’s language or translated into any of 70 other languages. (And if you have access to PowerPoint Live Presentation, each audience member can can have the narration translated into the language of their choice.)

Two other resources to consider: U.S. government agencies are required by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to ensure that communication materials such as PowerPoint slides are fully accessible to people with disabilities. Guidelines on text, object and color formatting and other design aspects can be found at www.section508.gov. And even if you don’t work for the government, these are useful standards for evaluating the accessibility of your slides.

Finally, WebAIM (an acronym for “Web Accessibility in Mind”) is a site maintained by the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University that offers training, consulting, evaluation and certification for organizations who are interested in enhancing the accessibility of all their web-based convenings and programs.

When meetings, presentations, trainings and just about everything you do move online, you face an entirely new set of challenges. How do you read the room when the “room” is a grid of faces on a computer screen? How do you keep remote workers engaged when the opportunity to multitask is constant? And how long can your team be productive when everything that was face-to-face is now conducted screen-to-screen?

To answer these and other equally daunting questions, we turned to the people at nonprofits and foundations, colleges and universities, and government agencies at all levels who are facing these challenges every day. Over 4,400 participated in our survey, and what they told us is summarized in our new report, “Unmuted: What works, what doesn’t, and how we can all do better when working together online.”

To learn more ways to make your meetings more inclusive, register for our “Meetings for People Who Hate Meetings” Workshop on May 13 & 15.

In Case You Missed It: This month’s ICYMI is adapted from a piece written by Andy Goodman in January 2006. In it, we dissect the cons of text-heavy PowerPoint slides.

In Case You Missed It: This month’s ICYMI was written by Andy Goodman in December 2006, as he sat down with communications expert Kristen Grimm to discuss the gap between caring and doing.

Even when your target audience is informed and concerned, they can remain stuck in neutral. Learn how to find their activation point, however, and you can shift them into drive when you need them most.

Kristen Grimm’s personal activation point was a phone call. “I remember being on a conference call with a nonprofit when someone said their issue was polling really well, so they were sure their audience was ready to act.” As president of Spitfire Strategies, a communications firm with extensive experience in public interest campaigns, Grimm was not so sure, and she had heard that kind of optimistic prediction once too often.

“I kept seeing this big disconnect between what people say they care about and what they’re ready to do,” Grimm says. So, with backing from three foundations and advice from a panel of communication experts, Grimm set out to study this frustrating gap between caring and doing. The result is Discovering the Activation Point: Smart Strategies to Make People Act.

In November, as the new study was being readied for publication, I asked Grimm what readers could expect to learn from her research. Her answers are inside along with an excerpt from Chapter II, “Testing the Temperature.”

Goodman: So let’s start with the obvious question – what is the “activation point”?

Grimm: The activation point occurs when the right people at the right time are persuaded to take an action that leads to measurable social change.

What’s the difference between an activation point and a tipping point?

With a tipping point, the social change is going to happen because people are already moving in this direction. The activation point is the architecture for getting to the tipping point. It’s what starts people moving in the right direction.

You talk a good deal about persuasion in the study. Do some nonprofits consider this a dirty word? 

Persuasion has become mixed up in some people’s minds as manipulation, and there’s a big difference. Manipulation usually implies lying and convincing people to act against their own interests. Persuasion is very different, and we wanted to give some very specific advice about how to do it. If knowledge alone were enough to inspire action, the world would already be a better place, but that’s not what we’re seeing. You have to plan for persuasion.

Who can benefit from reading this study?

Nonprofits and the foundations that support them. But keep in mind we’re talking about issues that people know a lot about and say they care about. If your issue is one with low knowledge or a lot of “swing voters,” you may not be at a place where you’ll be able to use this.

And the obvious last question: how does someone get a copy?

You can download a PDF version at www.communicationsleadership.org.

The following is an excerpt from Discovering the Activation Point: Smart Strategies to Make People Act, published by the Communications Leadership Institute and Spitfire Strategies with support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Open Society Institute, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Our research demonstrated that hope is a powerful incentive for bringing a person to an activation point. The stronger the hope, the more likely the action. A sense of possibility enhances one’s desire to help. In fact, hope is a critical concept — among the most frequently named in conversations about emotions.

Not surprisingly, hope emerges when a person feels in control, while hopelessness arises when people feel no control over adverse outcomes. Any successful call to action must build upon a sense of possibility. The audience target must believe it can make a difference and expect a positive outcome. Albert Bandura, a renowned social-learning psychologist at Stanford University, suggests that organizers initially structure situations “to bring success; don’t prematurely put them in situations where they are likely to fail.” Disease groups trigger this sense of hope when they talk about someday finding a cure.

The Living Wage campaign uses hope as an activation point. In Florida in 2003, a broad coalition of labor unions, community organizations, churches, senior citizen groups and others set out to offer a living-wage referendum to voters to raise the state’s minimum wage to $6.15 an hour. They made it clear that raising the minimum wage would help everyone. They called the campaign Floridians for All. They faced considerable and well-funded opposition from the powerful restaurant and tourism industries. But the campaign tapped hope for economic improvement for low-income families, and hope for success at the ballot box to move the effort forward. The minimum wage measures won in every county in Florida, even the most conservative.

On the other hand, some rhetoric is devoid of hope. The Institute for Public Policy Research in the U.K. tracked rhetoric around global climate change and found one pervasive pessimistic model described as follows in the Warm Words report:

“Climate change is most commonly constructed through the alarmist repertoire— as awesome, terrible, immense and beyond human control. It employs a quasi-religious register of death and doom, and it uses language of acceleration and irreversibility. It contains an implicit counsel of despair — ‘The problem is just too big for us to take on.’ Its sensationalism and connection with the unreality of Hollywood films also distances people from the issue. In this awesome form, alarmism might even become secretly thrilling — effectively a form of ‘climate porn.’ It also positions climate change as yet another apocalyptic construction that is perhaps a figment of our cultural imaginations, further undermining its ability to help bring about action.”

The problem with this model of rhetoric is that it emphasizes that the problem is too big to solve. People can either panic or dismiss the problem. Very few say to themselves,“I will be the one to fix this insurmountable challenge.” Instilling hope means showing audience targets that change is possible. Optimism is a critical component of persuasion.

In his book, Tales of a New America, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich asserted that four narratives have guided and shaped this nation’s life since its colonial days. “The Triumphant Individual” narrative includes stories reassuring us that anyone can make it here – just grab your bootstraps and pull! Stories about “The Benevolent Community” remind us that Americans are a good and generous people who will always lend a hand to neighbors in need. “The Mob at the Gates” stories warn that we must always be on guard against outsiders who would threaten our safety and security. And a similar set of cautionary tales, “Rot at the Top,” turns the focus inside the gates to expose corruption in government, business, and other internal centers of power.  

I was reminded of Reich’s book last month when I watched a presentation entitled “Far-Right Media & The Power of Narrative.” Hosted by Spitfire Strategies, the presentation shared the top take-aways of an eye-opening study funded by the Lumina Foundation and conducted by Protagonist, a firm that analyzes narratives driving human behavior.

Just as Reich did, Protagonist identified four narratives that are guiding and shaping American discourse – but with a critical difference. Rather than originating naturally over centuries, these far-right narratives have been deliberately constructed and disseminated for specific political and ideological purposes.

Call them “Scary Tales of a Far-Right America,” and ignore them at your peril, because it’s quite possible they are undermining your work as you read this. 

For this study, Protagonist’s researchers reviewed 2.2 million articles, broadcast news reports, commentaries, andother pieces disseminated between January 2020 and September 2023 by Fox News, Breitbart, The New York Post, Heritage Foundation,  and others – 38 far-right sources in all. The major topics covered by these stories included politics, education, immigration, race, religion, the economy, democracy, climate change and others. From all these stories four narratives emerged: (the text defining each of the narratives below is taken verbatim from Protagonist’s presentation) 

• Reject the Woke Agenda 

The radical and all-powerful Left is waging a mass indoctrination campaign that is silencing Conservatives and threatening the sacred values of our nation.  

• Americans Under Siege 

Chaos, crime, and violence have descended on this country, and Americans live amid constant threat of physical harm. 

• Expose the Deception 

We must open our eyes and resist efforts by Democrats, elites, and corporations to pull the wool over our eyes and amass power. 

• Preserve Capitalism

In order to keep our country strong and prosperous, we must not lose track of our commitment to hard work, self-determination, and a free market. 

These four narratives can work individually or in combination. For example, arguments that climate change is a hoax which restricts drilling for oil and hurts the economy tap into both the “Expose the Deception” and “Preserve Capitalism” narratives. 

Protagonist also found that many of these narratives created clearly identifiable villains, putting human faces on otherwise abstract subjects, making them easier for audiences to emotionally connect with (and become enraged by.)Don’t like the government telling you to get vaccinated? Blame Anthony Fauci!  

Another tactic connected with these narratives is the poisoning of key terms associated with progressive ideals: DEI, CRT, affirmative action, and others. Far-right outlets are using every opportunity to make these terms so toxic that they can no longer be used. (In a similar vein, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law in May 2024 banning the use of the words “climate change” in any statewide statutes.) 

Protagonist is already looking at left-leaning outlets to identify narratives on the progressive side of the ideological spectrum, and results of that research will be forthcoming later this year.

So, what do you do in the meantime? The first step in dealing with any problem is acknowledging that you have a problem, and clearly we have one here. These narratives comprise a well-orchestrated, relentless, and emotionally powerful attack on progressive values and causes. It requires the same in response.  

Who’s in? 

To learn more about the webinar “Far-Right Media & The Power of Narrative” send an email to narrative@spitfirestrategies.com. Special thanks to Nima Shirazi of Spitfire for his assistance with this article.

In Case You Missed It: This month’s ICYMI was written by Andy Goodman in May 2012, as he sits down with story expert Lisa Cron to discuss audiences’ craving for stories.

I devour books about storytelling, and Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence is a meal and a half. I took copious notes starting on page one where I was stopped cold by this insight: “Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution – more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.”

Cron currently teaches storytelling at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and she honed her skills as a story consultant for Warner Brothers, the William Morris Agency, and other Hollywood institutions. Recently, we sat down to lunch in Los Angeles and talked about her new book.

Goodman: I’ve read many books about the craft of storytelling, but this is the first I’ve seen that examines it through the lens of neuroscience. What got you interested in this kind of research?

Cron: For decades a big part of my job was to read manuscripts and screenplays and evaluate them. Most of them were really bad, so this almost always translated into figuring out why they didn’t work. It wasn’t long before I noticed something curious: while each story that didn’t meet my expectations crashed and burned in its own unique way, my expectations were few and constant.

A couple of years ago I began reading a bit of neuroscience just because it interested me. It was thrilling to discover that the expectations I’d identified corresponded with what the brain is wired to respond to in every story. The minute I saw the connection, I began devouring books, articles and studies in neuroscience, cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology.

Goodman: Wired for Story looks ideal for aspiring novelists and screenwriters, but how can it help non-profiteers who simply want to tell better stories about their work?

Cron: Story is story – whether it’s a novel, a screenplay, or the story of an organization, its mission, or how a problem it faces might be solved. When writing the book my goal was twofold. First, to help anyone who wants to communicate via story decode what a story really is and what people are wired to respond to in every story they hear. Second, I wanted to provide a hands-on method for creating a story that would meet those expectations every time. That’s something that would definitely benefit non-profiteers.

Goodman: What’s your definition of a “story”?

Cron: Great question, especially since people often mistake the story for the things that happen in it – the plot, the unfolding sequence of events. The plot is secondary. It is constructed to force the protagonist to deal with the inner issue – a mistaken belief, a misconception – that’s keeping her from achieving her goal. So what is a story? It’s how what happens affects someone who’s in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how he or she changes as a result.

Goodman: Your book makes the rather bold claim that all stories can be summed up in a single sentence: “All is not as it seems.” What do you mean by this?

                        Lisa Cron

Cron: Do you know what life is like when all is exactly as it seems? It’s boring as hell. When something is 100% predictable, it’s 100% boring and we pay no attention to it. Why should we? We already have it figured out. When something isn’t as it seems, we’re wired to notice it, lest it be something that could harm us (or help us). Stories are about making sense of, and navigating, the unexpected. What lures us in is the desire to find out what’s really going on. The sense of urgency we feel when our curiosity is piqued is actually a delicious dopamine rush that makes us pay attention.

Goodman: In chapter four, you cite research that shows how a good story will cause the audience to create mental simulations in their heads. Why is this important?

Cron: Stories are by definition mental simulations. When they’re not – they’re not stories. It’s that simple. When we’re caught up in a good story we’re feeling what it would be like to experience what the protagonist is going through. Think of story as the world’s first virtual reality. It lets us sit back and vicariously experience someone else suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, the better to learn how to dodge those darts should they ever be aimed at us.

Goodman: I love the Ernest Hemingway quote in your final chapter: “All first drafts are shit.” At first blush, that can seem discouraging, but you say it’s really liberating. How so?

Cron: Knowing that the first draft will probably suck helps silence that nagging, self- doubting inner critic we all have who’s always whispering, “really? That’s what you’re going to write? Are you sure?”

That said, it’s not a license for unbridled self-expression, or not to try hard from word one because it doesn’t really “count.” It does count, because it’s the raw material you’ll be working with, straying from, reshaping, paring, parsing, and then lovingly polishing. The goal of a first draft isn’t beautiful writing; it’s to come as close as you can to identifying the underlying story you’re trying to tell.

To learn more ways to hook audiences with your stories, register for our “Storytelling: Tapping the Power of Narrative” workshop on January 14, 21, 28 & February 4.

In Case You Missed It: This month’s ICYMI was written by Andy Goodman in October 2005, revealing the questions to ask before delivering your next presentation.

A common mistake in planning a presentation is asking the seemingly innocent question,“What do I want to say?” Unfortunately, this places the initial focus on you and your material instead of where it actually belongs: on the audience. Start with this question, and you are off on a path of building a case (or telling a story, or solving a problem) that may seem compelling to you, but could very easily fall on deaf ears.

Joel Bradshaw, a political strategist who frequently works with environmental organizations (and one of several veteran presenters we interviewed for this book), has seen many clients make this mistake. “Most conservation organizations think that you persuade people by marshaling a series of scientific arguments and facts to change people’s minds,” says Bradshaw. “In reality, that isn’t what happens. You change people’s minds by figuring out what is important to them — which is rarely science—and you present arguments on their terms.”

So before you can effectively engage, persuade, or educate the people in your audience, you have to find out what “their terms” are.

In some cases, audience research will require interviewing the conference organizer who scheduled your session. If you are working with a single organization, it may mean finding someone on the inside who can provide background on meeting attendees. Whatever the circumstances, there is almost always someone who will know more about the people in the room than you do. Find them, grill them, and take copious notes as they answer these questions:

Who will be in the audience, and how much do they know about the subject of my presentation?

One of the fastest ways to lose an audience is to begin talking above or below their level of knowledge or outside their job descriptions. Knowing job titles, having a general sense of the work they do, and learning as much as you can about their interest and understanding of your specific subject will help you pitch your talk at the appropriate level.

What do they know or believe that I can build on?

Rarely will you face an audience that is a blank slate. They are bound to have some feelings about your subject, and you want to fan whatever flickers of interest or support are out there. If you are proposing a plan for carpooling, for example, you may know going in that many people find it inconvenient and a hassle. But you are also likely to find that those same people detest sitting in traffic, and that will give you a better place to start a conversation.

What do they know or believe that I have to overcome?

Similarly, you don’t want to walk into an ambush. If the room is filled with people who aren’t sympathetic or even have reasons to oppose you, knowing this in advance will help you prepare arguments that speak directly to their concerns. When I talk to audiences about storytelling, for example, I often find that people are predisposed to think of stories as fun and entertaining, but certainly not a critical part of their communications toolkit. So I begin my presentations by naming that objection and helping audiences work past it. Only then can I move on to my goal, which is showing them how to use storytelling in their workplace.

By the end of my presentation, what do I want them to have learned?

In a typical one hour presentation, the audience will only remember a handful of points. So as you plan your talk, ask yourself: what three or four points would I want them to walk away with if they remembered nothing else?

By the end of my presentation, what do I want them to feel?

Human beings are emotional creatures by nature. If you present people with information without engaging their emotions in some way, they will walk away from your presentation saying,“that was interesting,” and then promptly return to their business and forget everything you just told them. If you want your audience to be angry, hopeful, fed up, curious, or inspired, you have to build towards that emotion, so know in advance how you want to send them off.

By the end of my presentation, what do I want them to do?

Don’t expect the audience to figure this part out for themselves. If you want them to consider your case, learn more, call their Senator, march in the street, or whatever, you have to explicitly build that “ask” into your presentation. Experienced speakers who give the same presentation many times regularly ask such questions in order to tailor the material to each new audience. Before conducting a presentation training for her clients, Christina Harbridge Law asks them to complete a five-page questionnaire. Peg Neuhauser, who delivers about 100 presentations in a year, will conduct up to 30 interviews with a single client organization.

“Tailoring is all,” says Jerry Weissman, author of Presenting to Win, and there is an additional value in constantly tweaking your material. “When I first started speaking,” says best-selling author Paul Hawken, “I got better and better at the same talk. But at a certain point, it is like breathing your own exhaust. As I continue to present, I give different talks every time. I do that for me, really, so I feel growth and challenge. The talks are not always as practiced, but they are more honest.”

To learn more ways to improve your presentations, register for our “Platinum Rules of Presenting” workshop on December 4 & 6.