Trainers Notes: Story of Self

Key Teaching Points:

• Story of Self is a tactic organizers can use to build community by

introducing who they are and why they are called to this work.
• Communicate values through emotions: these are what move us to act
• Certain emotions inhibit purposeful action while others facilitate
purposeful action
• Mobilize emotions through story: story has a particular structure: plot,
character, moral => challenge, choice, outcome
• Public Narrative is a particular type of story with three parts: Self, Us,
Now
Overview Timeline:
Section Time (135 Materials/Notes
min)
Introduction 50 minutes
Trainer Story of Self, US, 6 minutes Slide 1- Story of Self
NOW
Review Key Learnings 1 minutes Slide 1- Story of Self
Intro to Public Narrative 2 minutes Slide 2- Why do we tell stories?
Two Ways of Knowing 5 minutes Slide 3- Two ways of knowing
Slide 4- How/Why
Values, Emotion, Action Slide 5- How: Strategy and Analysis; Why:
Story and Motivation
Action Motivators & 6 minutes Slide 6- Motivation and Stagnation
Inhibitors
Three Parts to Public 3 minutes Slide 7- Self, US, Now
Narrative
Story Structure 5 minutes Slide 8- Challenge, Choice, Outcome
Sample Story- Barack 10 minutes Slide 9- Show Barack Obama’s 2004
Obama Convention Speech and debrief
Learning Teams 2 min Slide 10- Explain learning team
worksheets/agenda
Roleplay 6 min Slide 11
Teamwork 65 minutes
Review agenda, Set 10 minutes All Materials are in the participant guide
Norms, assign a time
keeper 10 min
Develop your story 15 min
Choose a partner and 30min
practice
Share stories in group
Debrief 20 minutes Invite 3 participants to tell their stories. Have
group coach them on making their stories
better.
Annotated Timeline:

* This section is intended to be used as a guide. The best trainers will take
this material and make it their own, working in their story of self throughout
the presentation and pulling on actual exapmples from their life and their
organizination or campaign.

Trainer Story of Self, Us and Now

Tell your 6 min story of Self, Us and Now as it relates to this particular
training group, campaign etc. Use the Story of Self Worksheet in the
participant guide and the Barack Obama video to help develop your example
story.

Review Key Learnings/Overview

You will learn why we tell stories, how they can help us in our organizing
work, see some example stories and then have time to break out into small
groups to develop your story of self and practice with your group. Then we
will come back together to debrief and hear what you came up with.

Introduction to Public Narrative- Why do we tell Stories?

Audience Engagement: Why do we tell stories?

 Trainer Tip: Assessing your audience, illustrate stories that will resonate
with the participants i.e. David and Goliath or Moses.

We tell stories to motivate others to take action with us. We tell stories to
enable others to understand who they are and why to take action. Story
telling is a leadership art that “enables others” to understand their individual,
community and immediate calling. A good story helps us make decisions in
our own life, by illustrating how a particular character overcame a challenge

Two Ways of Knowing

Audience Engagement: Has anyone been in an organizing situation that was

all about head (strategy)? Like lets get the petitions signed and then the
meeting with the congressional members and then lets make calls, etc.
How’d it go?

There are 2 ways in which we understand the world around us : why (story)
the heart; how (strategy), the head. Both lead to action, but we need to learn
to lead with the head AND the Heart. Organizing without a strategy isn’t
driven, doesn’t lead us anywhere, like walking blind. But having the best
strategy in the world doesn’t matter if we’re not motivated to implement it
and we can’t get anyone to join us.
“Its very hard to get your focus on “How-To what you want to do” if you don’t
have a sense of why”.

Values, Emotion, Action

Emotions inform us of what we value in ourselves, our communities and the

world, those values mobilizes us to action, stories allow us to express our
values not as an abstract principle – like I care about X reform – but as a lived
experience (a story about a family, student, community needing immigration
reform) could move us to action.

Audience Engagement: I want you to think about the lived experiences that
have moved you to action…we’ll be drawing on those a few minutes as you
start to craft your own stories.

Action Motivators & Inhibitors

There are emotions that inhibit action and others that motivate us to act.

Inertia, (being in autopilot) Apathy (without feeling), Fear, Isolation (fail to

appreciate interest we share with others) & Self-doubt (I can’t do it)– explain
the feelings

Audience Engagement (Questions to Consider):

• Has anybody felt these emotions before? Have they inhibited you from
doing anything, from taking action? Have you seen a community with
some of these feelings? What are the actions of a community that has
these feelings?

• Example of Union Organizing: When a worker is mistreated,

disrespected but is fearful, is apathetic, isolated, what is their reaction
to the treatment?

• Have you been in a moment that your community was hit with
URGENCY? Has anyone felt that in your communities – ANGER? Have
you felt HOPE, SOLIDARITY AND YCMAD?

• What gives that Hope, Solidarity, sense of YCMAD?

Three Parts of Public Narrative

In this session you will be learning how to tell your story of self, but there are
3 parts to public narrative:

Story of self (why I’m called to this work)

Story of us (why we’re called, why we matter in this effort
Story of now (what we’re called to do right now)
What is a Story?

Audience Engagement: What makes a story?

 Trainer Tip: Ask participant to name a recent movie that has just come
out. Using that movie, illustrate how every movie and story follows that
same. Pull out from the participant the specific details of the character’s
challenge,
Stories havechoice and outcome.
a common structure. A Plot: something unexpected happens to
the character, and then the character needs to make a choice, then that
choice yields an outcome – and that outcome teaches a moral.

Barack Obama Video & Debrief

Show DNC 2004 Convention Speech

 Trainer Tip: Because your audience may have differing opinions opinions
of Barack Obama, make sure to explain that we use this video because he is
a great speaker, and this is a craft her learned and we are here to teach you
the same craft.

Debrief:

Audience Engagement: How do you feel after hearing that? What specific
stories or examples painted the challenge and choice for you? What did you
want to know more of? Would it have had the same impact if he had said “
My name is Barack Obama, I went to Harvard Law school where I learned x
and y. Then I was ran for Illinois State Senate, and won. I really support John
Kerry because of x,y,z and you should too?”

Where’s the story of self?

• Challenge, choice, outcome - focus on choice points (father's journey
to US, parents decision to marry, naming "barack")
• Nothing about John Kerry, just about where Barack’s values come from
• What’s the transition? (“my story is part of the larger American story”)
Where’s the story of us?
• Founding story, Declaration of Independence (why did he choose this?)
• Challenge, choice, outcome, hope
• What’s the transition? “We have more work to do”
Where’s the story of now?
• Challenge, choice, outcome, hope
• Not statistics, but stories, no 10-point plans

Learning Team Session Overview

Review the story of self worksheets and learning team agenda before the
groups break out.
 Trainer Tip: Remind the participants to focus on 1 or 2 choice points in
your life that teach others about what values move them to be here.
Story of Self Debrief

Call up 2-3 participants to share their story of self. Ask the audience to
provide good coaching feedback

• Did they tell a real story of self—with a clear moment of choice?

• Did they avoid the trap of just talking about the campaign? If not how
could they? What in their life are you still curious about?
• Was there good detail? Where could there be more?
• Coaching—what types of feedback & questions were helpful?