This morning I was sorely tested to follow our own advice: tell your story, stick to your narrative, not theirs.
The context was a policy announcement from some people in politics to build more huge roads – 4 lane highways in fact – and one quite near where I live. I have to say I had all the feelings, sadness, anger, and disappointment. For me, wise and responsible leadership right now means planning long term for the big stuff we are facing in ways that leave a positive legacy for our children. We need transport systems that improve our lives in many ways – more big roads are not it. Not in terms of the many very important things we care about from carbon pollution, making space for water, improving air quality, and making communities kids can move independently around.
I had to remind myself that anger is fine, sadness also. To see people who want to be leaders not prioritising the things that really matter, and potentially undoing the good we have done in reducing carbon pollution to date is distressing. But using that anger in ways that bring more people into understanding the problem with roads is what I needed to do. That is to use my outside voice.
In narrative work we talk about our inside voice and outside voice. Our inside voice is where all the anger, outrage and pain we feel can be heard and shared between those of us working to make these big shifts, and those who live the harm caused by the bad system. Mostly it's not the voice that will shift those open to understanding, but not yet on board. For that we can use an outside voice. This outside voice is the voice we use anger to strengthen, but not to direct, as we strategically and tactically use communication to achieve our goals.
Shift mindsets and narratives - thats the big goal
Maybe like me you need to breathe, pause, don’t type just yet. Think about what the story is YOU really want to tell.
Choosing that story needs to be informed in part by how people currently think and reason (and don't reason) about our transport systems. We found in our research a very predominant mindset that transport equals cars and roads in our culture. If people reason this way then most of the problems we face with transport, will be reasoned through this way of thinking. Problems with congestion? More roads will solve that. Too much carbon pollution? Make the cars more efficient, faster. When this transport equals cars and roads mindset is being cued, it is hard for people to reason outside of it. Facts, logic and reason can’t shift these deep ingraining cultural stories that most of us are hardly even aware of. New stories can.
So rather than react to the unhelpful mindset and message or to point it out with a big sign, which risks further embedding it as the more people hear it the more it feels true, we need to cue alternative mindsets. For example, an alternative mindset exists in our culture that transport equals a tool to help us live our lives in ways we value, also that the job of a transport system is to provide all people in our community with easy options to get where they need to go.
With an alternative mindset to cue in mind we can then be more strategic (less reactive) in our response to poor policy proposals. The job becomes to shift mindsets and open people up to hearing the evidence and facts about why a shift in our transport system will meet many of our (and their) collective goals. That is the narrative shift we talk about. How do we do that?
Open with what matters to the collective us
Open with what matters to you about transport systems shifts, why do you care, how can life be better for everyone? Start to widen the frame to all those things that we know matters when talking about making a transport system shift and opening our streets to more people, and more options to get around.
Start with hope. Remind people that our streets and communities can be places we all want to be, and that we can shape them to live the sort of lives most of us want by shifting our transport system. Whether that is clear air for our children to breathe, making it easier for everyone to get around on bikes, walking and taking public transport, more independence for our children and disabled people to travel about, or the long term legacy people want to leave in terms of our environment. Maybe it is simply about a vision we all hold for wise and responsible decision making for the collective?
Explain why its a problem and what will work better – using facts judiciously
Then you can explain why building more roads is a barrier to the values and vision people have. For instance explain to people why and how more roads, and more cars bring more carbon pollution, or bring more injuries to kids. Explain why streets only open to cars makes it harder for people of different physical abilities to get around. Explain how more roads lead to more urban sprawl and all this makes it hard for our cities to absorb water when it falls for days and days like it does more often now.
Explain what will work better than roads to achieve the things people care about – opening our streets to more people on bikes and walking, more public transport, building up, creating villages again, and how that leads to more independence and better health for our children.
Keep it brief. A good explanation is critical but it should not be overly complicated.
Give people a solution and action
People might be mad, angry, or disappointed at this point. They also want to do something, or at least want to know what to do. We spend our life steeped in problems big and small that we have to solve. Make it easy for people. Tell them the solution in relation to the problem you have explained – what the better policy is and who needs to use it. It doesn’t need to be party political, you can simply say all people in politics need to focus on shifting our transport system to one that makes all people's lives better. Then give them an action to support this goal – write to an MP, petition, write the editor, vote etc.
So in sum: Be mad about poor policy that doesn't make the lives of many people better, and then get strategic.
Read our guides on talking about transport and climate for evidence-based advice you can use in your stories and communications.