How do you help others tell their stories?
There’s an unspoken rule among ghostwriters and speechwriters: We never tell. We let the speakers speak for themselves. So it’s a rare opportunity when I can show my work and talk about what goes into helping others tell their stories.
When working in public interest communication, issue advocacy or social change communication, nothing is more powerful than centering stories around the voices of those most impacted by an issue. If someone is incarcerated, let them speak for themselves. If someone wants to share their journey as a transgender person, lift up their voice and stay out of the way, something I worked hard to do in my transgender story series at Eclectablog. If a person is struggling to make ends meet because they’re not earning a living wage, let them talk about their own lived experience.
I had the pleasure of collaborating on a project with the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Innovation Service and the Center for Public Interest Communications at the University of Florida that put these principles into play. We worked as a team to help a refugee tell his story of the smart solution he created to address issues being faced by his fellow refugees in Uganda. We each had a role to play in helping this enterprising young man, Peter, share his experience and personal narrative in his own voice. The goal was not only to celebrate Peter’s accomplishments — which are well worth noting — but also to remind other refugees and displaced people that they have a vital role to play in re-shaping their lives. They have help, certainly, from UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations, but displaced people are empowered to take action on their own.
Because the Innovation Service is keen to experiment with storytelling and how it can be better applied to demonstrating the work not only of UNHCR but the refugees it works with, they interviewed all of us involved in the project. The end result was an article that shows what goes into helping someone shape their own personal narrative, in their own voice, and lifting up their own story for the world to hear.
As I said, ghostwriters never tell. But in this case, I didn’t. Someone else did it for me. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about our collaboration as much as I did being part of it.
Read “5 Lessons on Crafting New Voices for Innovation” here.
[Photo credit: LAF Lines Photography]
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A few weeks ago, frank asked us to submit our burning questions of the moment — what we’re curious about right now. One of my questions asked how we can motivate people to recognize and believe in facts in the post-truth era. Another pondered how we continue our work for social change in the midst of animosity, anger and aggression from both sides, without losing our equilibrium in the process. It’s not just about making the world a better place, but also taking good care of each other while we do it.
The frank motto is “Don’t settle for small change” — a lofty aspiration, particularly right now, when many American leaders would rather see us regress instead of moving forward. But I have faith. I have faith in frank and my fellow franksters. I have faith in the goodness of people, particularly as I see how they’re taking action to protect what already makes America great. I have faith that change is possible, even at a time when we may feel immutably stuck.
