Seminar Held In Person

Learning objectives

6C: Use communication tactics from story-telling and marketing to entice people to join your K2A initiative, and act on your theory of change. Specifically, you will learn to: Create a sense of belonging in a constituency of like-minded people for your audience. Create a sense of urgency for your audience by inviting them to take a specific action now to advance the theory of change by drawing on research evidence to paint a picture of the “nightmare” that might happen if there is inaction, and the “dream” we can achieve if action is taken. Create a sense of personal connection with your audience by sharing aspects of your own life as it relates to the K2A theory of change (per Ganz’s Public Narrative tool).

Field Guide Tool on which we are focusing: Ganz et al.’s Public Narrative Tool

Readings

Ganz, Marshall, et al. "Organizing: People, Power & Change. Participant Guide." Dogwood Initiative, Stonehouse Institute, Desmog Canada, Leading Change Network. Pages 60 – 92.

Resource (not required reading) Ganz, Marshall. (2011). "Public Narrative, Collective Action and Power." In Accountability through Public Opinion: From Inertia to Public Action, edited by Sina Odugbemi and Takeu Lee, Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, pp. 273-290. Available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/2296/616390PUB0Acco1351B0Extop0ID0185050.pdf?sequence=1 Links to an external site. Accessed August 22, 2018. This book chapter provides a more scholarly treatment of the material summarized in the Organizing manual above in pages 60-92.

Greenhalgh, T. and J. Russell (2006). "Reframing Evidence Synthesis As Rhetorical Action in the Policy Making Drama." Healthcare Policy 1(2): 34-42.

Harari, Yuval Noah Harari. (2024). Nexus: a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI. New York: Random House, chapter 2 "Stories: Unlimited Connections." Please focus on Harari's insight that stories offer a technology that enable humans to cooperate flexibly in large numbers. Feel free to use AI to generate a summary of the chapter that focuses on this theme.

Lesson Plan

Students come prepared to discuss readings
- Key questions
  - Ganz talks about Strategy, Narrative and Action in regards to Head, Heart and Action. How do these concepts relate?
  - Ganz discusses the difference between “Knowing Why” and “Knowing How.” How does these concepts relate to his emphasis on designing a Theory of Change and a Public Narrative?
  - What do you make of Harari's depiction of "story-telling" as a technology to organize people to cooperate flexibly in large groups? What are the implications for K2A planning, and theories of change?
  - Greenhalgh and Russel conclude: “… equally important is the task of disabusing the healthcare community of the misconception that policy making is, or ever could be, “evidence-based” in the way this term is conventionally construed… A more fruitful, and certainly more original, use of research funding would be to promote and evaluate the training of policy making teams in the art of rhetoric… designed to ensure that the players in the policy making drama acknowledge and take account of their respective points of departure. Making explicit the values and premises on which each side has built its case will not only highlight “evidence gaps” more systematically but will also generate light rather than heat at the policy making table.” What do you make of their conclusion?

I do: PK shares examples of story of self from his Gen Squeeze work:
- Re housing affordability. My story as a homeowner gaining wealth.
- Re generational fairness: My story about being the primary caregiver for my grandmother who lived to 103…
- Re K2A strategy: PK story of hubris; thought a prof with evidence alone could change policy…. Link to RED Talk.

We do: Revisit the padded knickers case. In pairs, repackage this case as a public narrative to convince policy makers to act on the evidence that hip protectors reduce injury, and to disarm critique that such equipment is little more than padded knickers from Greenhalgh and Russel. Be prepared to share your insights back to the class.

You do: Small group work on Assignment 2.