What are some engaging ways to tell stories that promote diversity and inclusion?

One thing I've found helpful is to share personal stories where inclusion positively impacted all parties involved. Engaging stories that talk of struggle that resulted in a shift and learning opportunity.

Lived experience humanises barriers some people experience. Storytelling for social impact is a lived expertise, taking the themes of individual experiences and translating them into actionable next steps towards organisational social impact change programs. People want to know why you're telling them a story, and without the link to specific programs or work or actionable next steps lived experience storytelling risks the audience feeling shame, judged or helpless. Select lived experience stories to leverage the power of human storytelling and balance the audience feeling reaction with the call to action. An example might be sharing workplace adjustment experience with the HSE team when they have prioritised discovery into the topic.

Contar histórias envolventes para promover a diversidade e a inclusão pode ser alcançado através da criação de narrativas que destaquem a multiplicidade de perspectivas e experiências. Incorporar personagens diversos e autênticos, abordar temas relevantes para diferentes grupos sociais e explorar histórias interculturais contribuem para uma representação mais inclusiva. Além disso, compartilhar testemunhos reais e inspiradores, bem como destacar as contribuições significativas de indivíduos diversos, cria um espaço para empatia e compreensão. A variedade de formatos, como vídeos, podcasts e campanhas visuais, também amplia o alcance dessas histórias, promovendo uma mensagem de aceitação e celebração da diversidade.

Lately, I've taken on the challenge of sharing stories that focus on joy while addressing critical issues and challenges without centering them around trauma. This approach helps to maintain audience motivation without inadvertently triggering discomfort.

Before telling a diverse story check in with the community that the story will be about to see if it causes harm or is stereotypical. This can be done through Focus Groups and feedback sessions. This will limit unintentional harm.

Demonstre os desafios coletivos, ao invés de individualizar problemas e soluções. Ao defender um projeto, conte a jornada atual e mostre como uma abordagem inclusiva pode beneficiar esse grupo, bem como as pessoas como um todo. Ser empático é também sobre compartilhar com as pessoas que a transformação começa por cada um.

Calls to action are a great way for people to move from ally to co-conspirator. It enables everyone to feel like they can make an impact, even just signing a petition. One small act can lead to long-term engagement in the future. Make sure it's easily accessible and clear.

In my experience, a community impact stream is critical. This means it is essential to understand how organizations' actions can lead to disparities in community conditions that ultimately lead to disparities in outcomes and experiences or how organizations create justice. Always include facts and narratives from each area of concern: Organizational Actions and Investments, Community Conditions and Resources, and Outcomes and Experiences. For instance, you may describe how "students of color need higher educational attainment." That might sound standard, but it is not about systems change. Consider instead a message that describes how organizations can act to create conditions and circumstances that lead to racial justice in education.

Depending on the platform, proper background must be given because the intended audience might see the information as pandering or exclusionary. Having people with the lived experience of the intended audience will generally cut down on backlash because they will understand the nuances of diverse audiences.

research, research, research Investing in the raw emotion and connecting with people who have lived experience in the story you are trying to tell if you don't have that lived experience.

Context is a really powerful way of avoiding pushback around 'that doesn't happen here', as is including quant and qual data from research to bring to life the scale and human elements. When people connect with the story and feel that it is relevant to them, they are far more likely to take an action. Ensuring that there is thena clear call to action that is specific and manageable is a great to way to shift people to engaged advocates with a connection to the issues and sense of involvement in the solutions.

Representation Matters. Seeing yourself and the barriers experienced as a shared experience with others is powerful. It builds confidence to open up, ask for what you need, and ultimately belong in spaces previously felt excluded from. Share stories and examples of people embracing their personal stories - warts and all. This may be people within an organisation or public figures. The more we can normalise natural human variation and provide role-modelling examples, the more we can normalise what's needed to unlock human potential.