Mankind’s Greatest Creation?
If I were to ask you (excusing the blatant sexism in the question), "What is mankind’s greatest creation?", what would your answer be?
Fire? The wheel? Maybe the internet? Perhaps, heaven forbid, Facebook?
What about stories?
Last week I wrote a blog about stories that wasn’t a blog about stories, but a blog about Feedback.
This week, I thought, actually I do need to write about stories because they might very well be our greatest creation of all.
Stories are key to how we learn; whether we’re children or adults. When you think of it, life is a collection of shared stories. We share experiences through stories and when we recount other people’s stories and the impact they had on us, they become new stories. Stories help us make sense of the world. Our entire history, and our future is an accumulation of stories.
Even fictional stories help shape our world and our understanding of it. They can influence our beliefs, challenge our assumptions, and help us establish and then reconcile our values with the world as we experience it. If you’re looking for examples, what about Orwell’s 1984, or thinking of more modern media, the fantastic Black Mirror series of dramas? (I’m a big fan.)
Stories work because they engage us on an emotional level; they amuse us, sadden us, give us hope, fill us with fear and/or make us angry. And those emotional responses are important because they not only help us remember the story; they can leave a mark that drives us to action.
Think about plastic pollution in our waterways.
I could tell you that there are 4 billion microfibres of plastic in every square kilometre of our oceans. That’s a shocking statistic but one that’s difficult to put into context. The oceans are, after all, a big and distant space disconnected from the daily experiences of most.
But look what happened when David Attenborough and the Blue Planet team used story to bring that abuse of our oceans to life. I defy anyone to watch as he tells the story of a pilot whale grieving over her dead calf without a tear.
It was those stories, surely, more than any dry facts, that led people to re-evaluate their relationship with plastic. You could argue, quite rightly, that we haven’t done enough; but those stories did something important; they made us care. And as leaders meet at the Cop26 talks this week, it’s the power of shared stories that will, I believe, ultimately drive any real changes made.
I always make the point when training trainers that our role isn’t to simply deliver information; it’s to deliver change for people and organisations. It’s an important distinction to make because when we think of ourselves as agents of change, our focus moves from telling, to inspiring.
Stories are one of the most powerful tools at our disposal for sharing ideas in a way that ensures they are remembered and in a way that inspires action in others.
Never underestimate the power of your stories, or other people’s.