Interview with Bonum, November 2020
How can foundations use storytelling and narrative methods to become visible and tell their future in a meaningful way? In this interview, Patrick Kappeler, founding member of the Storyteller Academy, explains how it works.
Patrick Kappeler, what do you mean by storytelling?
In principle, storytelling means nothing more than packaging bare figures and data in such a way that people understand them immediately. Stories fire an incredible number of brain regions at the same time and therefore remain in our memory for a long time. And stories are immediately understood by our subconscious, the part of our brain that makes 95 percent of all decisions every day.
Why is it important to tell the future?
To put it somewhat exaggeratedly: If you don't tell your own future, you don't have one. After all, a future narrative is nothing more than a bet on the future. If you don't have a convincing story to offer, people will turn away from you. Meaningful stories, so-called narratives, are such bets on the future. They organize how communities feel, think, and act toward a common goal. Powerful stories touch and transform people.
Don't numbers, facts, and figures do the same?
No. Look at the climate debate. We all know the troubling projections. Yet, for all our reason and logic, we don't seem to be able to counteract it in time. Brain research has shown: Man is not a thinking machine that feels, but a feeling machine that thinks. It is not the mind that we have to convince, but the feeling. This is exactly what narratives do. They flirt uninhibitedly with our logic of affect and win us over to even the most difficult tasks and toils.
"Man is not a thinking machine that feels, but a feeling machine that thinks."
Many bets on the future look rather bleak at the moment.
True. Large order structures and ladder narratives, including the economic growth narrative, are eroding and losing their meaning-making power for many. We are moving into a vacuum. New visions for successful coexistence are only just emerging. Here I see an opportunity for foundations to become even more involved in the social discourse. It will be crucial to get others to join in the conversation.
Why is that important?
An attractive vision is of no use if no one wants to share it. Only when employees and customers participate in the storytelling process can organizations tap their full potential. Then forces are released that can achieve great things. Then miracles happen.
And what does storytelling bring?
Visibility. Storytelling is a technique for structuring information and experiences in such a way that our brains understand them crystal clear, even at the emotional level. Let me give you an example: If you claim on your website to promote sustainability, you remain in a meaningless abstraction. It would be wiser to tell the story of Eve, the young wine farmer, about this value: Eve, with your help and against her parents' opposition, converted production completely to organic and now sells one of the best wines in the region. It is the concrete narrative that makes the abstract understandable, relevant and exciting. Storytelling is a fundamental prerequisite for remaining visible in an increasingly complex world, for building trust, for more successful fundraising, and for telling the future in a meaningful way together with others.
What might a meaningful future narrative look like?
I observe that more and more people long for a tender economy of togetherness, connection, responsibility, and meaningful aliveness. These needs are powerful sources from which we draw inspiring future narratives for ourselves and the community and pass them on to others with heart and mind.