Planning How A Story Can Fuel Change

How will you know if you’re making a difference? StoryLogic helps you focus on medium-term outcomes and long-term goals so you can steer your resources accordingly. We’ve taken a time-honored (by some, at least) framework—the logic model—and created a flexible process that creatives and their allies can draw on.

 

This is Active Voice Lab’s most controversial map. Some people love logic models because they can help determine a smart path to measurable change. Others, including some creatives, think that they’re creativity-killers, reducing the magic of stories into simplistic boxes and numbers. We get it.

 

At Active Voice Lab, strategy and creativity go together. So we applied this planning method to help people in an Ecosystem think practically and collaboratively about how a story can support people on the front lines of movement-building.

 

BEFORE YOU START

StoryLogic requires rigor and significant group brainstorming. It’s an excellent tool for developing a shared strategy; it’s a living document that should be shared and tweaked over time.

 

StoryLogic doesn’t lend itself to simple on-line instructions. In fact, we’d opted not to publish it…until now. If you’re interested in StoryLogic we encourage you to (a) include someone who’s familiar with logic models on your team, (b) read up about logic models in advance, and/or (c) hire Active Voice Lab to help you build this out.

View Example

Sample questions for developing StoryLogic

What goals are you aiming for?
What goals does your Ecosystem share? (For example: all children get an excellent education, or the opportunity gap is closed.)
What intermediate outcomes be achieved to reach those big goals? Think about policy that must be passed, communities that need to support those policies, corporate practices that must be changed, etc.
How will a story contribute to those steps?
In addition to a powerful story, what tangible resources do you have, such as partners, active members, social media, donors, etc.?
How will those assets help you hasten those outcomes? Think about how social media can build the buzz; how thought leaders can amplify the ideas; how partner groups could organize and build membership, etc
How will you know if this momentum and activities are indeed spurring the outcomes on your way to achieving the goals?
What are some key indicators that will demonstrate that progress is being made?
What are some unexpected outcomes?
How can you pivot to take advantage of new opportunities or learn from missteps?

DON’T PANIC

This process can get complicated—that’s because good strategy takes time. Don’t try to create StoryLogic on your own, or in a hurry. Remember that you’re part of an ecosystem; bring in people from other sectors to find out what they need and how a story can help them.