Using Stories to Make Your Case
By Angela Parker
Stories are all around us, and are an integral part of our lives. I didn’t realize this truth until I was listening to a presentation given by Liz Lang, Marketing Director for the American Planning Association (APA), about how to use stories to “say what we are ‘for’ effectively”. This was an excellent presentation focused on one piece of a bigger objective to help us, as planners, better communicate with our state and federal legislators. Although this was given in the context of connecting with legislators, planners can use the storytelling process to engage citizens with local issues. This can be accomplished by hiring a professional storyteller, if there is money in the budget. More often, smaller communities use stories collected in the course of daily planning activities or from newspaper articles.
Liz noted that when we are trying to connect with an audience, the first minute is when we either engage them or lose them. We need to take those precious seconds and catch their attention with stories they can relate to, no matter who the audience is. Make them curious, and ask questions to stir their imagination.
I started thinking about big issues that had previously come up in different communities I have worked in, and how the stories could be used. Many of the issues had been a problem for an extended period of time.
In one community, a small neighborhood had a zoning problem that had existed for thirty years. The Planning Department had tried several times to rezone the area to fix the problem, but had not been successful, so the problem was forgotten.
Fast forward to current times, when a property owner in that same neighborhood wanted to construct a new home on an empty lot. Due to setback requirements of the zoning and the size of the lot (nonconforming but legal), it was impossible for the owner to build anything, let alone the modest home he was proposing. This lot was typical of the size of lots throughout the neighborhood.
The Planning Department decided that enough time had passed since the last rezone attempt that they would try again. However, this time it was different. Instead of just sending the residents a letter telling them their property was going to be rezoned, staff spent time gathering stories of prior permitting & construction issues caused by the zoning problem, along with the history of the neighborhood. Many residents had stories of the struggles to build on their property because of the zoning—they had to purchase additional land and consolidate lots in order to meet setback requirements, or build a much smaller structure than they wanted. Staff went door-to-door and personally interviewed as many residents of the neighborhood as possible to explain the situation and get feedback. Some of the residents, whose properties were grandfathered in, were still against rezoning and did not want to participate at first; however, because of the individualized contact they were willing to listen.
At public engagement meetings, staff provided property specific information about how the current zoning restricted them and how the rezoning would affect them. This effort got the residents thinking about what would happen if they needed to rebuild from scratch or if they wanted to add a garage or other outbuilding to their property. There were many meetings and proposed compromises, with both groups working together to a solution. Ultimately, the rezone was passed and the residents were happy about the changes.
In another community, there was a neighborhood issue regarding the use of a home as a church retreat. The homes in this community all started out as second homes (or vacation homes) for people wanting to get out of the big city and come to the forest to “camp” during the summer. Through the years, some of the houses were sold to people who made them a permanent, year-round home.
The owner of the property in question had been using his house for weekend church retreats. Someone in the community called and complained. The owner met with the Code Enforcement officer and learned that he needed a conditional use permit to allow him to continue with the church retreats, since he wasn’t always at the house during the retreats. He applied for his conditional use permit, and the neighbors came out in droves with all kinds of crazy stories about the people who came to the “retreats”. Many of the stories could not be verified, including ones where police were called to the area because of unruly retreat participants. However, the police were contacted by our office to verify the story and were told there was no record of police going to the location on the date the incident supposedly happened. We asked if there were any incidents at that property in the last couple of years, and the police department couldn’t find any. One of the stories that emerged, but could not be verified, was that one retreat participant walked along the river (which formed a property line along the back of the subject property and others) and threatened all the neighbors with a knife.
The property owner tried to reason and compromise with his neighbors, but the neighbors refused to listen. The deciding body ultimately sided with the group of neighbors, mostly because they were louder and there were more of them objecting. Their stories, although untrue, had caught the attention of the planning commission.
As you can see from these examples, stories can be used effectively on either side of an issue, if you can get the appropriate person (or people) to listen. Stories provide that personal connection that brings people together on an issue. The stories become more of a reality when people can see something of themselves in the stories. We want our issue to be remembered— to get our audience to keep thinking about it even after they leave the meeting. The point we want to make should be the thing we say at the beginning, and then say it again at the end, and our stories should support our point.
Stories are all around us, and we need to get really good at listening, according to Liz. Sometimes we need to draw out stories from our coworkers, from citizens, or from our elected officials. Informal gatherings or discussions are good ways to find stories that we can use in planning. Liz suggests creating a “story bank” that you can pull ideas from. Some of the stories may surprise us, and may need to be shared to help change thinking and behavior.
Sometimes, the stories are simple and have nothing to do with the issue at hand, but connect us to our audience. Liz uses an example of connecting with a person because they both have kids playing soccer or their kids go to the same school. Once this connection is made, the person may be more willing to listen.
Often an issue requires that the stories we use should be real, and we need to do our research to ensure we get our facts correct. The damage done by using an untrue story to support our narrative can be tremendous. We can, however, use “what-if” situations or “scenarios”; these do not have to be real life situations but are based on facts and can be used to help listeners understand the consequences that may come from certain actions or inaction. Scenarios and real-life stories can work together to strengthen the relevance of the message to the audience.
As our world has been laser-focused on data in the last few months, Liz explained that stories are more successful when backed up with data. Data alone does not give us the whole story, as we can see from recent worldwide events. When the two are combined they present a strong case for whatever issue we may be presenting.
Circling back to the importance of stories when connecting with our legislators, stories are what catch interest in an issue. For example, if we say that the new department store coming to our area is not a good fit, it sounds like we are just being petty. However, if we explain that there are only 1,000 people in our town and there are already several locally-owned small shops that provide the same products and services, those legislators will understand why the department store is not a good fit. When we get those local store owners to come and share the stories of how and why they started their business, it strengthens our stance on the issue and brings even greater understanding.
When we approach our legislators on an issue that is important, we can’t just throw a bunch of numbers at them and assume they are going to see our point of view. Bring along stories that underscore why the issue is important and how it can affect the people they represent. Find ways to connect with your legislators so that they are willing to listen to what you have to say, and include stories that the legislators may want to share with others to keep the message moving.
References
Lang, L. (2020). Saying What You’re “For” Effectively. Accessed from https://engage.planning.org/home.
About the Author
Angela Parker, AICP, CFM is the president elect of the Western Planner Resources board. She is a Certified Floodplain Manager and previously worked as the Platting Officer with Fairbanks North Star Borough Community Planning in Alaska. She also serves on the Wyoming Planning Association Board.