PreIntensive 2 Post: The Art of Persuasion

This week's readings/viewings were especially enjoyable. They focused on theories of persuasion, ethics, and behavior change. I can barely remember a time when I did not hope to change the world in some way that would make it happier, kinder, cleaner, etc., so these tools really resonate.

Thus far, I've mostly suffered through learning via my own personal process, i.e. the hard way. If I were to chart a path of my own process, it would contain peaks of various lengths of time spent on:

• Anger at the insanity of the way things seem,
  
• Becoming a scientist to generate good information that would spur the powers that be to do the right thing,
• Delving into technical details and mastering factual arguments so I could prove my case,
• Wasting time thinking about how to talk with the portion of the audience who is least likely to change
• Getting annoyed with and immune to the constant barrage of apocalyptic messages about wilderness, wildlife, oceans, energy, climate, diseases, children, America, other places, evil dictators, evil corporations, etc., etc.
  

I am convinced that the tools above are NOT the path to creating positive change in the world. If they aren't working on me, then how could they possibly work on someone less likely to read or to nerd out on all the details? Less altruistic? Less interested in the world?

Over the past year, I've become fascinated with the use of emotionally-resonant stories as a more compelling tool to attract interest. As we know from the movies, stories about millions of people tortured and killed thru war, Nazis, Khmer Rouge, Rwanda, ad nauseum, are often told thru the eyes of one victim or a single outsider. The story of one horror affects us more powerfully than the story of hundreds of thousands. I've become interested in other storytelling techniques. What makes a story a story? What are the basic elements needed to capture our interest? How can I, someone whose natural creativity is still shy and undeveloped, learn enough about story to turn myself into a storyteller? How can stories help me become a more powerful change agent?

Here are some sites about storytelling as a persuasive art:

Story Revolution

Hanson Hosein re: Storyteller Uprising

My personal goal is to find ways to combine my newfound interest in the use of story with BJ Fogg's elegantly understandable construct about behavioral change - Motivation - Ability - Trigger. The Behavior Grid offers a useful to work with my teammates or my client to hone in on what we really want to accomplish and the best tools to use.