Tags
:
So true - I am fascinated, particularly, by the triggering event
Storytelling for Sustainability
Categories: News, Rumors, Gossip, & Trends Culture Sustainability New Products, Services, and Business Models Innovation Community Ideas
Climate change has thrown our society into disarray.
There is conflict and confusion over cause, severity and outcomes. A million ideas and solutions drowning each other out. And in the middle of it all, consumers that don’t know who to believe, what to do, and how to feel. At best, we may be stressed and confused. At worst, we’re about to go catatonic and numb, unable to effect any change at all.
Funny as it may sound, what we need is a good story.
Storytelling is, and always has been, the antidote to information overload. As Dr. Edward Wachtman says, stories are the structure that bring order to our existence. As humans, we are wired for order and sequence. We intuitively organize the millions of independent events in our lives into an orderly sequence with a past, present and future. One of the mechanisms we use to do this is storytelling.
Stories bring an emotional context to the unfamiliar, enabling us to not only process information, but determine if that information should sway us.
Truth is, you can’t win anyone over with a superior argument. You need to connect with them on an emotional level.
When Aeschines spoke, they said ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke, they said ‘Let us march against Philip.’
What’s the green story?
Climate change, sustainability and green innovation may be relatively new topics. But as the dusty newspaper aphorism goes, there are no new stories.In fact, when you dig into the disarray, you find many elements of our current situation fall naturally into a story template. That template, described by green PR expert James Hoggan, has the following elements:
- Foreboding – a vague sense that something isn’t right
- Triggering event – a moment that causes us to act
- Epiphany – the curtains draw back and we see clearly
- Reconciliation – we act to bring reality in line with our vision
- Transformation – we grow based on the experience
- Return and responsibility – we bring our new wisdom to daily life
Let’s take the Ray Anderson story. Anderson runs Interface Carpet, a shining light of green innovation. For years, he answered Interface’s environmental critics with ‘I’m doing what I have to – I’m following the law’ despite his growing sense of foreboding about his company’s environmental impact.
His triggering event came when he read Paul Hawken’s ‘Ecology of Commerce’, leading to the epiphany that his ‘business as usual’ would make his legacy a dead planet.
Reconciliation came when he redefined Interface’s mission, and brought his managers aboard to create a bold new vision.
This led to Interface’s transformation, with incredible product and business model innovations – leading to it’s number 1 ranking in the SustainAbility global survey.
The story concludes with Anderson living a new life as a sought after speaker and advisor on all issues eco - including a key role advising on President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.
The Innovation Ecology Needs Storytelling
Innovation (green or otherwise) is, by definition, new. In a world moving at breakneck speed, new is not always welcome.
Storytelling ensures that your innovation has the momentum it needs to overcome the inertia and resistance to change both inside your organization and outside in the real world. So many things have to go right for the new idea, service or business model to ever see the light of day; without the continuity and inspiration of storytelling the odds are stacked against you. Externally, out in the real world, to make sure the new idea is emotionally embraced by consumers, and is successfully contextualized into their existence, you will again, need to introduce it with a story.
A staggeringly large number of things have to go just right for a new idea, service or business model to ever see the light of day. Without the glue, context, and inspiration of storytelling, the odds are stacked against you.
The last mile
Once innovation has been delivered, an organization needs to change behavior to embrace that innovation. This isn’t a nice-to-have. Considering corporations spend months and millions developing ideas, getting buy-in to ensure ‘lift-off’ is critical.
Unfortunately, all too often, corporations stumble at this last mile because they assume adoption will be automatic.
Without a story to help employees, stakeholders and consumers contextualize and internalize a breakthrough, a great innovation can be reduced to a clever invention on the trash heap of history.
With a story, an innovation can help improve lives, drive positive behavior change, and perhaps even inspire greater, more fervent climate action.
And that’s a story with a happy ending.
Have you seen the new Maddock Douglas Homepage?
Follow Maddock Douglas on Twitter
Read More In: News, Rumors, Gossip, & Trends Culture Sustainability New Products, Services, and Business Models Innovation Community Ideas
Thought leadership on innovation and the future of your industry from Maddock Douglas - The Agency of Innovation.
Click here to follow us on Twitter
Maddock Douglas
- member since: 01/30/2010
- rank: 7 of 8126
- 4 articles authored
- 48 blog entries posted
- 20 forum threads started
- 107 comments
March 11, 2010 1:23 PM
Thanks for the encouraging words. Let us know if you'd like to discuss the triggering event phenomenon more.
Cheers
Marc
March 11, 2010 2:24 PM
updated: March 11, 2010 2:27 PM
I have heard that storytelling is the best (only) way politicians get elected. My story, EcoCommerce 101, contains the bio-economy conundrum that farmer Kimball faces: market signals for provisional ecoservices and few to none for regulating ecoservices, and society wants both. But related to Andrea's comment, how do we set the triggering event?
Maddock Douglas
- member since: 01/30/2010
- rank: 7 of 8126
- 4 articles authored
- 48 blog entries posted
- 20 forum threads started
- 107 comments
March 11, 2010 3:29 PM
Tough question.
Triggering events are moments in time. Hurricane Katrina, polar bears starving on the news. I believe (and I'd like your thoughts on this) that what we can do is seed the thinking that all is not as it should be, giving people something to contemplate. They will, on their own time (and under their own circumstances) hit a triggering event. Then, we can help them with stories of other folks who hit that moment, and what their epiphany from the triggering moment was. It's a way that we can help people get their own sustainability story started - by creating their desire for a story, then giving them other peoples' stories to help frame their own.
Hope that helps.
M
March 11, 2010 4:10 PM
Somehow.. my entire original comment got cut off, so thanks for politely conversing with a half thought. (ha).
I meant to say that the triggering event into epiphany stage are a good place to focus.. which is what you seem to be saying in your follow up, Marc to tgieseke. Setting the stage/foundation with examples of other people's stories about that transition, and really getting THOSE stories out there, will only help people to "notice" that something's up and be ready when their personal trigger moment happens. Other than huge events like Katrina and the polar bears starving, having a first child may well be another common trigger (if what I've learned about moms is any indication). It's as if we feel like we are a lost cause, but when we bring a whole new life into being - we suddenly connect more strongly with environment and "sustaining" ways of life etc.
Maddock Douglas
- member since: 01/30/2010
- rank: 7 of 8126
- 4 articles authored
- 48 blog entries posted
- 20 forum threads started
- 107 comments
March 11, 2010 7:59 PM
Ha ha...the 'having a first kid' trigger.
That was MY trigger too. Small world.
I'm certain you and I aren't alone in this. Lots of friends are in the same headspace, and young kids has EVERYTHING to do with it.
Thanks for sharing!
M
March 12, 2010 8:41 AM
Great insight on the value of story telling - in this case supporting green economy. I believe that the key element for society to grasp is the incremental aspect of change. Society benefits most when many sign on to a change. It's not the oil companies and Walmart that are going to lead in changing to a green economy, it's us - the consumer - that will lead. Everyone works to their economic best interest. When consumers demand with their pocketbooks, voices and feet that they want
March 12, 2010 9:08 AM
I agree that the consumer, and their self-interests will lead the economy - therefore the economy defines sustainability. Walmart, with their 'sustainability index' effort, I assume, took the lead from consumers' self-interest and then sustainability becomes Walmart's self-interest. But I also see an interesting development by the world's largest corporations. According to a World Economic Forum report, corporations are recognizing that natural capital, like man-made capital, if finite in its production capacity and that its production capacity is being reduced to a point of diminishing returns. They feel the need to start managing these natural capital 'holdings' so that their portion of the bio-economy remains productive. Paul Hawken wrote of this in his 1993 Ecology of Commerce. I included this perspective in my soon to be released book, EcoCommerce 101. As Hawken stated, corporations are our blessing, because they are the only entities that can solve our resource issues (paraphrased).
March 12, 2010 1:20 PM
Hi Marc -
Wonderous stuff. I responded to your linked post yesterday.
Can I interview for PlanetShifter.com. Can't seem to locate an email...
Willi
Maddock Douglas
- member since: 01/30/2010
- rank: 7 of 8126
- 4 articles authored
- 48 blog entries posted
- 20 forum threads started
- 107 comments
March 12, 2010 1:32 PM
Rich Trakimas said: Great insight on the value of story telling - in this case supporting green economy. I believe that the key element for society to grasp is the incremental aspect of change. Society benefits most when many sign on to a change. It's not the oil companies and Walmart that are going to lead in changing to a green economy, it's us - the consumer - that will lead. Everyone works to their economic best interest. When consumers demand with their pocketbooks, voices and feet that they want
Rich, you bring up a good point. I mentioned it in my article on Insurance, Climate Change and Innovation (it's also on the MD Community site). Climate change is a tipping point phenomenon...it seems nothing happens, then suddenly you get huge change. But human behavior is the same. We all start doing things 'individually' - then suddenly we have a global phenomenon on our hands. It's my hope that through wonderful conduits like social media, we'll all be able to share our stories of sustainability, and find our that we are, in fact, a force of good to be reckoned with.
Thanks for giving me your feedback. Look forward to staying in touch.
Marc Stoiber
Maddock Douglas
- member since: 01/30/2010
- rank: 7 of 8126
- 4 articles authored
- 48 blog entries posted
- 20 forum threads started
- 107 comments
March 12, 2010 1:37 PM
tgieseke said: I agree that the consumer, and their self-interests will lead the economy - therefore the economy defines sustainability. Walmart, with their 'sustainability index' effort, I assume, took the lead from consumers' self-interest and then sustainability becomes Walmart's self-interest. But I also see an interesting development by the world's largest corporations. According to a World Economic Forum report, corporations are recognizing that natural capital, like man-made capital, if finite in its production capacity and that its production capacity is being reduced to a point of diminishing returns. They feel the need to start managing these natural capital 'holdings' so that their portion of the bio-economy remains productive. Paul Hawken wrote of this in his 1993 Ecology of Commerce. I included this perspective in my soon to be released book, EcoCommerce 101. As Hawken stated, corporations are our blessing, because they are the only entities that can solve our resource issues (paraphrased).
Glad you shared your info with us. While I agree that corporations will (and already do) play a major role in climate action, I still believe that it is educated consumers who dictate what corporations produce. What excites me is that consumers are (despite the very noisy climate denier camp) starting to realize that all is not well. Pushing corporations, voting for leaders who recognize climate change, and re-thinking their own consumption, consumers will be a major force in 'getting 'er done'.
Cheers
Marc Stoiber
March 12, 2010 4:13 PM
updated: March 12, 2010 5:00 PM
Hi, We are into telling stories: about a grassroots culture in NSW, Australia. Know as the 'rainbow region' , this culture has been quietly experimenting with sustainable models for the last four decades. You can see some of the stories at www.rainbowdreaming.org
We are looking to share these stories with others, in the form of a touring exhibit.
We are looking for eco friendly and innovate ways to present this exhibit.
Do you have any information on companies/manufacturers who are producing and printing books on high-end hemp paper and hemp exhibition panels?
Also companies willing to supply/sponsor us with A3 size touch screens to facilitate text in several languages as part of the traveling exhibit?
Ideally, the touch screens should be made from hemp or some other biodegradable/eco friendly material.
At the mo, we are looking at touring Rainbow Dreaming to Japan in 2011, with tours to other countries to follow.
Any suggestions?
Ta,
Harsha Prabhu
Co-curator
Rainbow Dreaming
www.rainbowdreaming.org
March 12, 2010 4:15 PM
"Stories bring an emotional context to the unfamiliar, enabling us to not only process information, but determine if that information should sway us."
When do stories rise to the impact of archetypal themes, cultural symbol and myths?
Maddock Douglas
- member since: 01/30/2010
- rank: 7 of 8126
- 4 articles authored
- 48 blog entries posted
- 20 forum threads started
- 107 comments
March 12, 2010 6:16 PM
Harsha Prabhu said: Hi, We are into telling stories: about a grassroots culture in NSW, Australia. Know as the 'rainbow region' , this culture has been quietly experimenting with sustainable models for the last four decades. You can see some of the stories at www.rainbowdreaming.org We are looking to share these stories with others, in the form of a touring exhibit. We are looking for eco friendly and innovate ways to present this exhibit. Do you have any information on companies/manufacturers who are producing and printing books on high-end hemp paper and hemp exhibition panels? Also companies willing to supply/sponsor us with A3 size touch screens to facilitate text in several languages as part of the traveling exhibit? Ideally, the touch screens should be made from hemp or some other biodegradable/eco friendly material. At the mo, we are looking at touring Rainbow Dreaming to Japan in 2011, with tours to other countries to follow. Any suggestions? Ta, Harsha Prabhu Co-curator Rainbow Dreaming www.rainbowdreaming.org
Harsha, happy to hear about your show. Would be happy to discuss your needs and steer you to the right folks. You can reach me at marc.s@maddockdouglas.com. I'll forward you to my colleagues - we may have a solution for your exhibit, or be able to connect you with folks who can make it happen. Cheers
Marc Stoiber
Maddock Douglas
- member since: 01/30/2010
- rank: 7 of 8126
- 4 articles authored
- 48 blog entries posted
- 20 forum threads started
- 107 comments
March 12, 2010 6:36 PM
Willi Paul said: "Stories bring an emotional context to the unfamiliar, enabling us to not only process information, but determine if that information should sway us." When do stories rise to the impact of archetypal themes, cultural symbol and myths?
Biiiiiiig question!!!
Although this can take us back to Freud, and fill volumes, I'll try a simple answer: stories are a product of the culture that weaves them. I believe they build on the values of the storyteller's society, then add a creative twist to make the story captivating, original and compelling. If they are captivating, original and compelling enough, they are retold and retold. And if they're really good, they become archetypal themes. That's my point of view on the subject - and it's only one point of view. Would be very interested in hearing your thoughts.
marc stoiber
March 12, 2010 7:09 PM
I am working on how we can grow new values, symbols, dreams, myths to replace the capitalist / corp. / military brain wash.
"Willi's Green Box:" New green stories and myth generator:
http://www.planetshifter.com/node/1345
This is a flothy augur of new faith and viralization, .... as I.
March 13, 2010 8:56 PM
Story telling is so deeply entrenched in our DNA that we are hardwired for it. Looking at the responses to your article -- we're each telling stories as we agree and expand on your thoughts and ruminate on how to draw those in greatest need of hearing our stories to the story itself. Not an easy task.
I completely renovated my site at www.vanilla.com with story telling in mind. My site discusses the tropical foods we love so much, the people and cultures who grow those foods, the environment in which they live and the issues they face, which ultimately, we face as well.
It has been very interesting to observe who actually engages in the site and stories and who looks around and leaves. Most people come looking for vanilla products or recipes; I can only hope that increasingly, people will return to read. It's difficult to engage people in the written word and we can only talk so much. This has not been easy for me as I grew up in a story telling family and have been a writer for almost my entire life.
What I can offer to all of you who may be interested, is to come to my site, hang out for a bit, and see if there is a story that you would like to share for any of the sections of the site. You will of course have full credit, a link to your site and mention in my newsletter. I am actively working to grow this site with the goal of engaging more visitors and that they will participate so that the conversation and story telling will grow richer and deeper.
Maddock Douglas
- member since: 01/30/2010
- rank: 7 of 8126
- 4 articles authored
- 48 blog entries posted
- 20 forum threads started
- 107 comments
March 15, 2010 12:37 AM
Patricia,
thanks for sharing your site. Will definitely check it out.
It may spark an idea for a new story. In which case, I'll be back to you to try and contribute!
Cheers
Marc Stoiber
March 16, 2010 1:28 PM
"Myth is a funny word for brand".
PlanetShifter.com's Interview with Marc Stoiber,
VP Green Innovation, Maddock Douglas by Willi Paul
http://www.planetshifter.com/node/1514
MS: "I'm an innovator and believe there is a way we can speed our
recovery. We can take a tip from traditional marketing strategists
and innovatively link happiness with sustainable products, services
and business models to shift society from the brink. Or go one further,
we could link happiness with spiritual fulfillment, community and harmony."
Add Your Reply
Copyright © 2012
Maddock Douglas, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
RSS |
Privacy Policy |
Terms of Use |
Contact Us |
Site Map
