Storytelling for Advocates 101

I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating: your volunteer advocates are the most valuable, and the most underutilized resource for your organization.

There’s data to back this up. The Congressional Management Foundation has looked into the concept for years. Their conclusions are pretty startling. While an overwhelming majority of senior staff and legislators value a personal story as “highly influential” in helping them reach a decision, a similarly overwhelming majority rarely – if ever – receive one. We’ve got a communication gap in the world of advocacy. We’re failing to tell our stories.

In my previous post, I opened the door to this topic area. Informed by the idea of story branding within marketing, I think we can more effectively win decision makers (not to mention prospective advocates) to our cause by refining our ability to frame a story for them. But it takes us understanding the basic parts of a story.

Today, we’ll focus in on part 1: identifying a character who faces a point of friction.

If you’ve been here for a while, you know I’m a fan of the West Wing (TWW). Aaron Sorkin’s ability to weave together storylines and dialogue is masterful – and TWW is far and away my favorite TV show. So when I saw Sorkin partnering with the educational app Masterclass, I obviously spent quite a bit of time digesting his content. Within that course, he deftly reminded watchers that without points of friction, you don’t have a story – you only have a sequence of events.

In the world of advocacy, we’d do well to remember that point. Too often we default to relaying facts and figures, relying on a data-centric approach. Instead, we need to help our advocates describe their goals, and the barriers in their way. Further, we need to flip the script on our target and show how that same friction point impacts them. Here’s how it could look:

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“Representative – I’m a parent just like you. I have all the same dreams for my daughter as you do for your children: good health, a great education, a career, maybe starting her own family down the road. But when she was diagnosed with XXXX, my family realized she may never make it to those milestones. We came here today because HR 1234 would provide critical funding on this disease. We’re on the brink of a technological breakthrough on treatment and this next round of funding could turn this disease into a chronic condition. You could be critical in making that happen.”

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This, strangely enough, is reflective of a story I heard as a young staffer. It didn’t resonate as effectively with me at the time because I wasn’t a parent. But I wasn’t the target. The advocate team had boiled a crushing diagnosis into a 30 second story tailor made for their legislative target.

Not only did they demonstrate their own connection to the issue, but they helped tee up legislators to see themselves facing the same point of friction. Further, they set the stage for that legislator to be the hero not only in their own story, but in the stories of their constituents. Subtly, without pouring on too much flavoring, they effectively created the drama necessary to win a new champion.

Boiling your message down to this point, so your volunteer advocates can build their own will transform your advocacy efforts. Just don’t forget – you’re going to need a really clear point of friction.