Written by: Vickie Sullivan | February 01, 2022
How to Turn Your Story into a Movement
Heads up: Controversial political examples ahead.
Opposition to critical race theory (CRT) has grown from a few loud parents at school board meetings to a national movement for “parents’ rights.” That trajectory has some great lessons for thought leaders who want to expand their support base.
This message strategy is like the one used in the movement to defund the police. The three-step process they both use: 1) Identify an arcane term, 2) Redefine it, 3) Make it a rally cry that encourages passionate people to act.
Here are two tactics that can also work for thought leaders—to expand their story and turn it into a movement of their own:
• Redefine the term. Yes, we redefine all the time. What’s missing, though, is the visceral emotional connection. Both anti-CRT and defund the police work because they make take advantage of “primal” fears (physical safety and their kids, respectively) to create a villain.
Listen: How to Create a Villain
• Create neutral talking points. To counteract charges of racism, the activists went further than simple denial. They created messaging that included the opposition to show that they care about both sides. Example from anti-CRT: We don’t want African Americans to see themselves as victims who can’t succeed.
Many of us are great storytellers. Take that further. Make your story strong enough so you can expand it and turn it into a scalable movement.
Now Read This:
Author : Vickie Sullivan
Published: 2022-02-01 11:27:43
I understand your feelings on this. There are many ways our stories can generate a visceral emotional reaction. And I wish our culture wasn't so outraged at one another, especially to gain power and influence. I also agree with you that targeting folks we don't agree with and calling them the villain isn't cool either. Reasonable people can disagree and have good motivations. I didn't mean to convey that this was OK, so my apologies for any misunderstanding. I've gone back through the content in my audio clip as well as this post. I'm using the word "villain" in the context of storytelling (hence the title of the post.) In stories, there is tension between the protagonist and other forces. The latter is often called the villain. In business storytelling, the "villain" doesn't have to be a person. It can be an outcome or work behavior. It can be policies or a system. In this setting, the villain isn't something we must attack; it can also be something we avoid.
Author : Marcia Yudkin
Published: 2022-02-01 07:40:58
I strongly feel we should not be encouraging one another to create villains. That makes the world a worse place. And creating villains and basing movements on that is even worse.