Welcome to the third edition of Listening to Change, a regular digest from the Centre for Public Impact, Dusseldorp Forum, and Hands Up Mallee sharing what we are hearing from our listening sessions. We’ve been speaking to those using stories in government and philanthropy to better understand the role of storytelling in systems change.
We've heard that government’s need for efficiency and outputs make it difficult to allocate the resources and time required to be relational, develop trust and hear stories.
“With the pressure to have an output that is neatly boxed up there is an inability to tell a story amongst this transactional nature.”
We've also heard that when a story heads upstream, from community to decision makers, and becomes further removed from the teller, so does its power. The challenge for intermediaries, as stewards of stories, is to translate and present them in ways which will land with decision makers.
“Stories have the greatest credibility in talking to what they saw and heard. There is a diminishing value in return in emotional connection every time a it is told by another person (further away).”
As we wrap up the listening phase of this project, stay tuned for updates about the report and other outputs we are exploring. Until then, check out some of what we've been watching, reading and listening to below:
Vibrant mural in South Auckland community place, co-designed by local rangatahi
Mural depicts the ancestral story of an important local figure, celebrates cultural identity, and aims to deepen community knowledge and understanding of Māori place names
Ambelin Kwaymullina says that while there is a lot of truth telling at the moment there should be greater emphasis on truth listening and shares how non-Indigenous people can really listen to Indigenous voices.
Do you want to add to the conversation? We'd love to hear your thoughts!
The Centre for Public Impact is a global not-for-profit organisation founded by the Boston Consulting Group. We serve as a learning partner for governments, public servants and the diverse network of changemakers who are leading the charge to reimagine government. We work with them to hold space to collectively make sense of the complex challenges we face and drive meaningful change through learning and experimentation.
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