Stories About What We Do™

Founder + CEO stories | Startup stories | Member stories | Movement stories | Impact stories

Real stories that connect a person to their work.

Stories About What We Do™ emerged as a specific genre when digital media made it easy to publish stories on video-sharing and website platforms. Stories became the preferred form of content online, and audience expectations drove a demand for storytelling.

Stories About What We Do™ are unique:

  • The plot consists of real world events

  • The story is about your work — but includes events in your personal life.

  • The object of change is a problem experienced by others; it can also be experienced by the protagonist, but it can’t only be experienced by the protagonist.

  • The objective of the story is for the audience to take an action

  • The timeline must include the past, present and future.

  • The story is unfinished — if it were finished, there would be no action for the audience to take.

But when they work, they inspire action, build trust and generate alignment, which is why you hear them on TED stages, in investor and donor pitches, at rallies and fireside chats.

They are some of the most important — and difficult — stories we tell, because their objective is to generate an action by the audience, whether it’s to join, fund or support your organization. Every leader is expected to have — and tell — one., and every social change organization is expected to include them in their organizational communications, including fundraising pitches, impact reports and public speaking events.

Why are Stories About What We Do™ so hard to tell?

  • You’re telling the story while you’re experiencing the story; you don’t have distance for reflection.

  • You want your audience to be affected — but not feel manipulated.

  • You need to be strategic — and authentic.

  • The stakes are high: investment or donor funds could be on the line.

  • The story is unfinished — but it has to end: landing the plane can be difficult.

Tell stories that “work”.

If your story isn’t “working” — it doesn’t feel authentic, isn’t generating action or is generating the wrong action — you’re probably making one of the same common mistakes that others make. Most of the time the real story is much more interesting than the one you’ve been telling — you just haven’t found it yet.

To find your Story About What You Do™, a narrative analysis identifies where the story doesn’t work, and Story-Modeling™ — a method using narrative theory, neuroscience, modeling & simulation and communications — reveals the story that does:

  • Close reading of your story

  • Narrative analysis

  • Story-Modeling™

  • Testing and feedback

Start a conversation about what you need here.

FAQ

  • No.

    A career story plots the events that impacted your career, including relevant education, promotions, and job changes. The object of change is your career.

    Stories About What We Do™ plot the events that impacted your work — whether it’s your career, paid work outside your career, or volunteer work. The object of change is the problem you are work to impact.

  • No.

    Organizational storytelling is always in service to the organization. Stories About What We Do™ can be in service to the teller or the organization.

  • If the story you tell about what you do isn’t having the effect you expected, you need a narrative analysis that informs a new version of your story.

    Reach out to start a conversation about working together.

  • Kinda.