Blog Action Day: Climate Change Myths and the Actions That Follow

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A Guest Entry for Blog Action Day 09 by Cathryn Wellner

Blog Action Day is an annual event on Oct. 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. This year the issue is climate change. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. I am joining more than 7,000 bloggers in presenting an entry on this subject today. Obviously, I wanted to tie the entry to storytelling, so I invited Cathryn Wellner to submit this guest entry since she is both a storyteller and passionate about the climate-change issue.

With a subject as serious and controversial as climate change, people on all sides of the debate can bristle when a scientist refers to it in terms of “myths”.

Climate scientist Mike Hulme has ventured into the realm of myth to urge people to “use the idea of climate change to rethink and renegotiate our wider social and political goals.” He cautions against “the exaggerated language in the description of climate change risks.”

Some use this as confirmation that climate change is a nothing to worry about. Others accuse Hulme of dismissing the most serious issue on the planet.

Both sets of critics misunderstand Hulme’s intent. I can’t claim to crawl into his mind, but my reading of his 2007 essay, Climate change: no Eden, no apocalypse, tells me that many of his critics misunderstand the power of myth to guide our actions.

Myths, after all, are not just lies told to mislead gullible people. They are stories that explain how the world works.

Hulme writes, “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has constructed a powerful scientific consensus about the physical transformation of the world’s climate. This is a reality that I believe in. But there is no comparable consensus about what the idea of climate change actually means. If we are to use the idea constructively, we first need new ways of looking at the phenomenon and making sense of it.”

Hulme frames the way we communicate climate change through the lens of four myths.

In the Edenic myth, we long for an idyllic past and see the natural world as fragile and in need of protection. “[W]e are uneasy with the unsought powers we now have to change the global climate.”

The Apocalyptic myth focuses on disaster. It betrays our fears for the future but and calls us to act.

In the Promethean myth, climate is “something we must control, revealing our desire for dominance and mastery over nature but also that we lack the wisdom and humility to exercise it.”

The fourth myth, Themisian, shows concern for those who will be unequally harmed by climate change. “Climate change becomes an idea around which calls for environmental justice are announced, revealing the human urge to right wrongs.”

For the most part, the myths we live by are invisible. Behind the scenes, they guide our actions. Hulme writes, “The four mythical ways of thinking about climate change reflect back to us truths about the human condition that are both comforting and disturbing. They suggest that even were we to know precisely what we wanted — wealth, communal harmony, social justice or mere survival — we are limited in our abilities to acquire or deliver those goals.”

Copenhagen will be the scene of the next round of global climate change talks. It will be fascinating to compare Hulme’s four myths with the stories delegates bring to the table and the actions they take, or fail to take, based on them.

Mike Hulme is Founding Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, coordinator of the EU’s project on options for European and global climate policy, and a Lead Author on the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change from 1996 to 2001.

Cathryn Wellner is a storyteller and writer in Kelowna, British Columbia. Her early work as a performer morphed into community development, with a focus on organizational narrative.

Blog Action Day Postcripts

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Just a couple of items to add about this year’s Blog Action Day 09 — in addition to Cathryn Wellner’s wonderful guest entry. One of these is related to storytelling; the other not so much:

  1. Another story-based initiative regarding global warming is the online anthology, Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming.From the site:

    This new anthology from the Union of Concerned Scientists and Penguin Classics brings together established writers and fresh voices to inspire us with personal stories and reflections on global warming.

    Following in a uniquely American tradition of environmental writing begun by Henry David Thoreau and continued by great writers from Rachel Carson to E. O. Wilson, Thoreau’s Legacy enhances our appreciation of the world around us and galvanizes support to preserve it for future generations. The 67 pieces of writing and art in the anthology are drawn from nearly 1,000 submissions about beloved places, animals, plants, people, and activities at risk from a changing climate and the efforts that individuals are making to save what they love. A foreword on global warming by the well-known author Barbara Kingsolver helps to set the context.

    Readers can launch the interactive book to read the anthology or explore the site to learn about the hardcover and e-book versions and what individuals can do to help address climate change.

  2. There’s a way to do more than write or read blog entries about climate change. Blog Action Day has partnered with Al Gore’s group the Alliance for Climate Protection to start a global online action addressed to the one country whose actions will most influence the future of our climate: the United States. From the Blog Action Day organizers: “Blog Action Day bloggers represent 130 countries, and climate change impacts us all. But more than that of any other country, action taken by the United States to limit greenhouse gases and build a clean energy economy is needed to achieve a sustainable solution to our global climate crisis. Add your voice and call for bold action now.

No. 2 Entry in Raf Stevens Great Storytelling Challenge: Sometimes It’s All in the Delivery

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Again rising to reader Raf Stevens’ challenge for me to present more examples of good storytelling in this space, I give you another one that is making the social-media rounds.

This one could not be more different from my first entry, posted earlier this week, “The Closet.”

While that one was a video/digital story, this one is an oral performance (although it is a video of an oral performance).

While my first selection used very few spoken words, this one depends on spoken words. The spoken words give it a huge portion its power.

The rest of its power comes from the delivery by actor, singer, writer, and composer Daniel Beaty, illustrating just how much a teller can bring to a story.

Like my first pick, this one is relatively short — two minutes and 35 seconds.

It is also classified as Def Jam poetry — but it undeniably tells a story.

The story draws the listener in and builds to a powerful climax that includes its audience. Commenters have used words and phrases like “brilliant,” “riveting,” “beautiful,” and “the most passionate, powerful, intense. genuine, wise and meaningful message”

Here is Knock, Knock:

 

 

Winning Entry Says More about Cell Phones than Toilets

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I mentioned a few weeks ago, a “Tell Us Your Best Toilet Story” contest from American Standard.

The winning entry, submitted by Emily Horos of Atlanta GA, has now been chosen. Here’s the beginning of it:

It Works As a Phone, Too

I lived in a house with two female roommates, so toilet paper was never in surplus.

One night while watching a movie in surround sound in the living room, I felt the call of nature and exited the room for the adjacent bathroom.

I did my business and reached for some toilet paper before noticing that the roll was empty. No worries. We kept a stock of extra under the sink as this was the only bathroom in the house. I opened up the cupboard only to find it bare as well.
Read the rest here.

Rising to the Challenge: Great Storytelling Example No. 1

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Last week, reader Raf Stevens challenged me to present more examples of good storytelling in this space. I was critical of the storytelling in the entries in Slideshare’s World’s Best Presentation Contest, so Stevens wanted to get a better idea of what I consider to be good storytelling.

Here’s an example that has been making the rounds on Twitter over the last week. While I can’t say for sure that the characteristics that make this video great storytelling work for every attempt at storytelling, those traits are:

  • It’s concise (a minute and 14 seconds).
  • It has a beginning, middle, and end.
  • It’s exciting and suspenseful.
  • The viewer wonders where it’s going.
  • There’s a great payoff that more than satisfies the “where is this going?” question.
  • The story and its payoff are communicated in very few spoken words.
  • And you can’t beat the tagline: “Never underestimate the power of a good story.”

I’ll present more terrific examples as I come across them. In the meantime, enjoy “The Closet.”

Job-seekers: Find Your Story

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In yesterday’s entry, I lauded the How to Find Your Story Worksheet that Elizabeth Sosnow of BlissPR created for B2B businesses.

As promised, today I present my adaptation of the worksheet for job-seekers.

As I noted yesterday, for job-seekers to use this worksheet effectively requires thorough research into each targeted employer’s problems and needs. You won’t be able to adapt your message to the most appropriate story framework unless you know how it relates to what the employer needs most from you.

Here, side by side with Sosnow’s version, is my adaptation for job-seekers:

Story-Finding Worksheet Can Work for Individuals and Businesses

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I recently came across Elizabeth Sosnow of BlissPR and its blog, B2B Bliss: PR for Thought Leaders, in which she is offering an awesome worksheet called How to Find Your Story.

It’s particularly targeted at businesses, and especially businesses in the B2B realm, but as always my mind starts spinning about how an individual, especially a job-seeker, could use it.

For this approach to be effective for a job-seeker, I believe he or she would need to target a specific company and probably position within that company. The job-seeker would want to perform extensive due-diligence as to the company’s needs and problems.

Update: After I posted this entry, I came across an interview with Sosnow by my friend Trey Pennington. In fact, Sosnow created the worksheet featured here for this podcast.

Tomorrow: My adaptation for job-seekers of “How to Find Your Story”.

Reader Reflections on the “Cover Story” for Career-Changers

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In addition to appearing in this space, my blog entries also appear in my Facebook profile, and occasionally I get more comments on the Facebook version than I do here at A Storied Career.

Such was the case with Tuesday’s entry about whether career-changers should use a white-lie/half-truth “cover story” when asked what they’re up to between jobs.

Here are the responses I got over on Facebook:

I advocate authenticity. Dig a little into the truth of the time you need to “cover”. Surely you traveled, managed investments and or studied something .

— Jennifer Sumner

If you can’t find something in the truth to talk about, then something is wrong. Maybe that’s the story that needs to be looked at & a better story created through doing something positive. Sometimes it’s hard to see the positive side of the story, but if it’s not there it can be created through community work, internships, education, or a short term meaningful job. There is always a way to create a positive truthful career story. … I have worked with people who were in desperate situations & feel that lying or covering up is the only solution. After a short conversation, they could always come up with an honest story for the interview.

— Nancy Miller

Interesting conversation! I think that when we look at our lives, we have a habit of thinking in terms of negative at times. When we are preparing for an interview, it’s a great time to truly think about our story, not try to lie about it, but take the time to give ourselves credit. If we were not working in a for paid position for awhile, the things we were doing still had value. Were we caretaking for someone in need? Were we taking time to make sure our children had a solid foundation after a move or other life change? Was there a death of a family member that caused emotional trauma? Many people typically do not give up their job for a reason so we just have to think in terms of the positive and view our life stories in a positive manner. After, all our life stories make us who we are!

— Debbie Rogers

Integrity alone disallows half-truth and white lies. There are generally good, and reasonable explanations for changes, or periods of unemployment, whether good or bad. However one could take their experiences, something like volunteering during that time and apply it to their story. Nothing like thinking you are down and out and then go volunteer in an intercity soup kitchen to let you know just how great your life is…

— Clint Miller

I’m very glad that all these readers agreed with me that an authentic story is always the way to go.

Getting Storied with Your Elevator Speech/Pitch

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I’ve written somewhat extensively in two of my books about the elevator speech, which is also known as the elevator pitch. In Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get Jobs and Propel Your Career, I call this communication tool the Elevator Story.

I have to admit, however, that of all the career-marketing communications I’ve written about, the Elevator Pitch/Speech/Story is the one I’m not quite comfortable with.

Maybe it’s because I’m not a natural networker myself, and most elevator communications seem a little corny or hokey to me. My research tells me, however, that, yes, they are hokey, but they work to cement networking contacts and make the user memorable.

My discomfort came home to me again yesterday when I attended Bernadette Martin‘s webinar previewing her book, I Need to Brand My Story Online and Offline — Now What???.

The end of the webinar dealt with the elevator pitch. Bernadette wrote to me last night and told me she felt the elevator-pitch portion of the webinar had been very rushed and had not done justice to her message (the presentation had already gone past its scheduled end point when she started talking about this topic.) She said she hoped to conduct a separate webinar devoted to the elevator topic. She also noted that the example pitch she discussed in the session was not as polished as it could be.

Because Bernadette was not happy with this portion of the presentation, it’s not fair to critique it. I do have one bone to pick with one of her basic tenets about the elevator pitch: She feels an elevator pitch should be 60 seconds. I feel that’s at least twice as long as an elevator pitch should be; in my opinion, it should be 15-30 seconds.

She and I both believe the most effective elevator pitches are storied. It’s not easy to make an elevator pitch into a story, however, and I have to admit I’m not completely happy with the storied quality of some of the examples in Tell Me About Yourself.

Here’s one that is because it’s told in a problem-action-result format:

Hi, I’m Sandra Dinkleman. You might be interested in knowing that I recently stabilized a highly chaotic operational and customer-service situation by taking control and implementing new heightened customer-service standards and collaborating with staff members to improve the company image and boost the morale of my employer’s staff.

Bernadette’s formula for an elevator pitch, shown at left, from a screen capture of one of her slides, also incorporates the basic problem-action-result sequence.

Here’s another from my book, contributed by one of my former students, that tells a nice story but depends on its audience grabbing the bait of a teaser line to unfold. This pitch doesn’t do a lot toward telling what the networker wants to do but does give a good sense of his character:

Networker #1: Hi, my name is Tom Jacobsen. I was born a lucky Arkansan.

Networker #2: How so?

Networker #1: Because I was born on July eleventh, 7-11. I have been fortunate enough to meet two presidents, Reagan and Clinton, and the richest man in the world, the late Sam Walton. I am also blessed to be part of a good family with one brother and three sisters. This family has instilled in me strong values, which were reinforced by volunteer work in my church and community. Trustworthiness and honesty are my defining characteristics. Quiet by nature, I am the “strong silent type.” Far from boring, I have a great sense of humor, and even own a goose. I intend to achieve my goals through hard work.

I am not sure that either Bernadette or I have come up with the formulas for elevator pitches that are sufficiently storied. Perhaps a better approach is to train yourself to pick up on appropriate tidbits from the situation you’re in and weave a compelling story out of them.

Such was the approach of Marcos Salazar in Part 6 (of 10) of a personal-branding story on Dan Schawbel’s personal-branding blog (and I will admit that this one probably lasted at least 60 seconds):

When I got asked what I did in New York, the person also said, “Nice shirt!” That night I was wearing one of my Brooklyn BoroThreads tees, so instead of simply mentioning my day job of, “I’m a psychology researcher for the Girl Scouts,” I took a cue from that person and started talking about how I had designed the shirt myself and it was from a clothing company I just launched in New York. I could have ended there, but that still would have not been too exciting.

So I began telling a story of how I had met my business partner Gabriel via Craigslist when I subletted an apartment after breaking up with the girlfriend I was living with. Gabriel was my roommate for that month and we hit it off right away as we hung out in the apartment talking about how much we loved Brooklyn, funny things about New York, Amherst (where he was from and I went to college), and general tech stuff. This led me to talk about how Gabriel and I were chatting at a café one day and noticed how New York was packed with clothing stores, but no one had ever really created hyperlocal clothing focused on interesting and quirky things about living in the 5 Boros.

So before you know it, I was creating a narrative on the origin of BoroThreads and discussing funny stories, the way we come up with the designs, and how we end up seeing people on the streets wearing our gear and make it a point to go introduce ourselves (and sometimes buy them a beer). The person was really enjoying the story and I can guarantee that they remembered who I was much better than if I had just said, “I am a clothing designer.”

One very useful tool Bernadette offered was a phone number (below), where you can call to record your elevator pitch and play it back so you hear how it sounds.

What are your ideas on integrating stories into elevator speeches?

LinkedIn Profiles as Storytelling Tools

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I just attended a webinar delivered by Bernadette Martin, a Paris-based American who has a new book coming out soon, I Need to Brand My Story Online and Offline — Now What???. Martin’s work has a lot in common with my Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get Jobs and Propel Your Career.

Her focus in this webinar was storytelling in LinkedIn profiles and elevator pitches.

A starting point, Martin says, is a Bio Tool, one of three key tools in a personal-branding toolkit (the other two are one’s resume and references). She notes that a bio is not a static document, and you can have bios for many situations. She mentioned having about 19 versions of her bio.

Some of the most interesting parts of the webinar sprang from audience questions and comments. Martin talked about making an emotional connection with one’s audience by integrating storied elements into resumes, bios, and LinkedIn profiles, prompting an audience member to ask about discrimination issues. We’ve long been taught to keep personal information out of career correspondence, especially resumes, so that employers won’t be tempted to discriminate. Legal and discriminatory concerns are a huge emerging issue as more and more recruiters are using social-media venues — which are replete with photos and the kind of information that can get candidates screened out — to source candidates. I don’t know how these discrimination questions will be resolved, but I favor the storytelling possibilities in social-media profiles and more — rather than less — personal information in career-marketing communication.

Considerable discussion ensued over the question of first-person Linked-In profiles vs. third-person. While Martin acknowledges that both options are viable, she prefers third person because it’s more “professional.” She completely contradicted everything she’d previously said about using stories to make an emotional connection by asserting that third person is preferable because it’s more “detached.” Hmmmm … that would seem to be the opposite of an approach that makes an emotional connection.

One of Martin’s main arguments against first person is that first-person profiles tend to repeat “I, I, I.” Several audience members pointed out that it’s possible to use first person without beginning every sentence with “I.” Others noted that the profile should target “you” the reader and take more of a second-person approach in which the profilee tells what he or she can do for you. Jason Alba, host of the webinar and a LinkedIn expert/author, favors the first-person approach, and I agree with him. It’s much more personal and makes an emotional connection much better than third person. I also note that resumes are written in first person (with the actual “I” unspoken but understood), and in the research I’ve conducted, hiring decision-makers loathe resumes written in third person. A resume is not the same as a Linked-In profile, but they are close enough that hiring decision-makers’ first-person preference likely applies.

I like my LinkedIn profile and feel it is reasonably storied (and branded), but one thing I realized from the webinar is that its paragraphs are way too long. That’s because LinkedIn limits the user to 2,000 characters. I remember editing and editing to get mine down to that and finally reducing space between paragraphs to eliminate characters. Looks like I need to do more slicing and dicing.

Tomorrow I’ll discuss the webinar’s take on elevator pitches.