the story of telling narrative storytelling + library brand communicationmonday 03 october 2016

outcomes | future-statelibraries

✤ hubs of participatory culture✤ coordinating community media

layer✤ trusted repositories of community

data✤ engines for hyperlocal small

business growth

three things librarians need to know about stories1/ why stories work (and what KPI*s really matter: what shared values activate)

2/ why networks form (power of the weak, not strong: where the value lies)

3/ why culture eats strategy for lunch (Peter Drucker and ROI…and a story that shows how it all comes together: how cultural values drive everything)

*key performance indicators

why story? why now?

Simple:to respond to digital disruptionlibraries are busting out of their bricks and mortar.

(it’s the best way to keep libraries alive and well.)

big internet questionwhat's transactional basis of the internet?

not timenot moneynot bandwidthnot social networksnot video

hint: it’s how we all build relationships. even in this room. in a room full of strangers. right now.

This is a piece of interactive software.

it’s story.We meet one another and get to know one another and trust one another by exchanging story

Why care about story?

✤ Stories relax people and focus their attention (not a data dump)

✤ Stories start conversations (engagement)

✤ Stories spark emotions and make people do amazing, human things (catalyze action)

✤ Stories don’t sell. The best don’t tell either—they lead us to something new (teachable moments > inspire change)

mindblowing idea. stories are data…with soul. (Brené Brown) not a data dump

win engagementcatalyze action

share ‘teachable moments’

brené brown

story | right into the noodle (thank you Jaac Panksepp)

a revolution beyond neuroscience

✤ because story is another kind of data and data’s another kind of story

✤ …and where the two meet, value lives

guess which side of the brain story operates on…

story leads change (and defines it too)

Here’s one way to be heard: it’s all about me.

But no one will listen.Why? It’s not about you. It’s about them.

Libraries aren’t in the book business: they’re in the business of growing the culture around them…

…they’re in the Phoenix or LA or Vancouver or Tulsa business.

you gotta feed ‘em what they eat.

✤ We live in a culture, a society that’s highly secular, post-modern, post-industrial

✤ In all the changes, all the stresses of everyday life, there’s one sure universal left...

if you want to speak to your community, do this

✤ we live in a culture, a society that’s highly secular, post-modern, post-industrial

✤ in all the changes, all the stresses of everyday life, there’s one sure universal left...

meaning ✤ The art and discipline of great storytelling—

from investigative journalism to black comedy to screenwriting to radio plays—hinges on meaning

✤ ...and meaning is the librarian’s stock-in-trade: librarians give meaning away, every day, all the time

✤ so there’s no end of inspiration for you in telling your story, your library’s story—abundance is happening

turning abundance into story

✤ To tell your story effectively, you need to know one killer piece...

Simple. But not obvious.(hint: alliance—the first step to networking)✤ Values. People want to know what you stand

for. And why: that’s why you won their attention.

✤ Share. Teach. Demonstrate real value. Share again.

✤ Values build value: it’s all about trust (again).

✤ And librarians have sky-high ‘trustability’

the recipe

Share the why of the how of what you do.

(once more, with feeling)

Share the why of the how of what you do.

why share your stories?

✤ four simple words: people will trust you

✤ share trust through shared story and something wonderful happens…

✤ …the people you’ve shared your story with share your story (that’s now their story: they’re telling it) with the people they think the story will affect most

and then a miracle happens.

networks.

stories operate on two levels…so do networks.

✤ stories document and share experiences

✤ sharing those experiences yields emotional connection

✤ networks grow and share experiences

✤ sharing those experiences yields opportunity to co-create value

value networks value networks are the information architectures of our tribes, our 'people'—they describe the dynamics of how that tribe interrelates...the cultural triggers that give birth to the stories the tribe tells

no accident

✤ communities align into networks by knowable rules and sustain in knowable patterns

✤ …there’s even a book on this

✤ A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

✤ must-read for anyone interested in designing systems

Patterns rule

if we can understand the patterns in the way communities share story…

…we have the means to build communities around libraries which can help advance everything libraries touch

libraries are ‘cultural triggers’ that activate networksmedialiteratureartfilmlocal historyarchivesdatabases(all KPIs)

how do human networks work?why are networks critical to growing library advocacy and community storytelling?

because networks share the values inherent in library advocacy/storytelling

so what's the key to understanding value-based relationships?

why we share stories determines why a community grows, sustains and influences others to join

classic example? gentrification via the arts

(from grotty to great)

making a scenethe edgy neighbourhood becomes focus of afterhours clubs or 'hidden gem' restaurants started by rebellious chef or a street market pops up—art galleries or tiny jazz/comedy clubs and then the sure-fire social barometer: the premium coffeehouse

if the cultural stars align……soon the young moms with strollers are hanging out in the espresso/lunch spot—and there’s a hyperlocal economy where there was only a few rebels/visionaries/early adopters

the context here isn't economic: it's cultural

free contextlibraries give context away—it's one reason why libraries are the most trusted entities around

what business are you in…really?libraries are in the context business—especially the cultural context business, not least because the future of libraries is pegged to the cultural vibrancy of the communities they serve

what fuels culture?it’s story-in-context: influence

…which is why ‘influencers’ prime networks with tips, reviews, insights and intelligence you can’t get anywhere else

the story engine

✤ here's the thing…

✤ the best stories—the best narratives—aren't one-offs

✤ they're organic, interconnected, non-linear...

complex narratives mimic life

✤ these stories grow and interweave with themselves over time (think: Downton Abbey, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones)

✤ this is why storytelling is so powerful, so entrancing

✤ taken at its highest, great storytelling sustains deep interest…even in a 47 second car commercial….

the recipe for compelling narrative

✤ what makes this complex TV storytelling so compelling to watch is the very thing that makes great brand narratives…

And libraries are brands.

✤ one of the best brands around, actually…

Q: what's that very thing?

Conflict.

Why conflict?

✤ Because conflict means risk…and risk exposes emotion

✤ We love great stories because, in their beginning, their middle and their hair-raisingly moving finales

we see the struggle of our own life

...released, larger than life

✤ sustainable stories are the ones that keep on telling themselves (that makes sense)

✤ they're either infectiously funny (hire a local comic actor and see what happens when s/he makes a short video for you)…

✤ …or so human, so wise, so moving, we can't help but share them

✤ all around you, there are people struggling with their lives…

✤ …the conflicts they confront, their sorrows, their joys

✤ these are the stories you want to tell through your library's social media

✤ not your story—theirs

✤ (why?)

✤ …so they’ll tell their story back to you, on the library’s social networks…a perfect circle of connection, community and library advocacy

and we’re back where we startedif you're beginning to see the patterns of sharing cultural stories feel a lot like a ‘virtuous circle’…you’re dead right

Date

next up: scale this 'open media ecosystem’ across libraries provincewide, then nationallyopen scaleability

going in circlesit's a great big hairy audacious feedback loop of hyperlocal story, data, culture, shared community experiences and (we fervently believe) prosperity led by participatory culture

Enter Mr. Drucker‘Culture eats strategy for lunch’

one more timethe whole point of what I'm sharing with you is that culture drives everything

crash + burnNo economic development strategy that doesn't profoundly understand culture and the 'why' of people coming together (the 'cultural triggers') will ever fly

Date

blue sky

why not?•why aren’t libraries (like post

offices in Ireland and Germany) local financial services hubs? why can’t libraries secure their future by helping their communities incubate better, smarter, more agile businesses?

why not?•why can't libraries become

publishers of local culture, local fiction, local film, local music, local dance—the coordinating media layer that all these arts communities need to grow locally?

why not?•why aren't library archives and

image banks 'rented' as unique media resources by local businesses who want to share their stories in a true local context?

why not?•why aren't library makerspaces

embracing community newsrooms—media hubs which define and explore what it means to live right here, right now—and growing the culture to boot?

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’tNow’s the best time to start mapping and strategizing and identifying cultural triggers to get you and your library and your community to the place where story meets data meets culture

thank you