Story & Change Right Now

Last week, I ran a long-scheduled program on “Storytelling and Change” for a private, non-partisan, but politically active group devoted to bringing solutions to America. We broadly discussed the many ways in which story can be instrumental in facilitating transactional change, transformational change, systems change, and personal change.

The collective desire of that group matches my own desire: to live in a more just, equitable, and peaceful world. For the 26 participants reeling from the events in and fall out from Charlottesville, it was impossible not to ponder how story can be used to bridge divides. I left asking myself, What are we trying to change? The nation? The other? Who exactly is our audience? Are we willing to first change ourselves? How do we act most responsibly?

As someone who provides counsel on the use of story for social, organizational, and personal change, I wondered, How do we do our best work now? How do we give people hope or at least a sense of direction? Changing the dominant narratives takes significant time. Yet big narratives are constructed from smaller, complementary stories that are shared over time. How can we best serve people and their seemingly small stories now? How can we immediately foster people hearing and making sense of stories so that they can contribute to positive social change?

Here’s what I am thinking, and I welcome your thoughts:

• Let us seek out and amplify stories of people connecting and collaborating, so we can contribute to an affirmative American narrative of constructive social change.
• Let us contribute to challenging assumptions and destroying prejudice.
• Let us guide people in seeking insight and embracing complexity.
• Let us create, refine, and mobilize the tools, capacity, and confidence people need to hear and be heard.

In all our encounters, let us live up to our highest personal and professional ideals. Let us align our words and our actions.

Through our work, we can foster the expansion of compassion and humanity.

Thaler Pekar is the CEO of Thaler Pekar & Partners. Join them in NYC in October for Storytelling is Only Half the Story: A One-Day Exploration into Finding, Eliciting & Hearing Stories.