Introduction
Anat Shenker-Osorio on the importance of telling our own story in campaign messaging, rather than negating the stories of our opposition. Plus… the live recording of Anat’s surprise encore performance at the Australian Progress Conference in 2017 (at 26.30 mins)!
Instead of talking about what people need, we have trapped ourselves in the opposition’s story…. We are a ‘no’ and a ‘don’t’ and a ‘can’t’ and people cannot attach themselves to the absence of a story. Every one of these ‘nos and ‘don’ts’ and ‘can’ts’ is a reaffirmation of the opposition’s story, this does not tell people what we are for. – Anat Shenker-Osorio
Summary
How do we make sense of this moment?
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” – A tale of two cities
We keep telling our oppositions stories e.g. The economy: scarcity, non satiation, in competition for scarce resources. Opposite story is abundance, we have enough, we re enough.
Instead of talking about what people need we have trapped ourselves in the oppositions story because we exist in reaction to them – a no, don’t, can’t. This does not tell people what we are for – what you fight, you feed.
Paid parental leave – scene is the workplace, default setting is the workplace, conversation about whether or not we should leave, you should get paid to leave. We aren’t paying you to leave, we’re paying you to care. We are mammals that have human young that need a lot of care.
Change messages are very strong in US.
Origin stories are where the problems come from.
Attribution CC BY