Five reasons why governments should value stories

In a special episode of our Reimagining Government podcast as part of the digital kick-off for the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2024, co-hosts Adrian Brown and Rosie McIntosh discuss the power of storytelling in government. They highlight:

• Why stories are important

• The current role of storytelling in government

• Why stories should be at the core of equitable governance

The episode features Tommy Whitelaw (National Lead at Person Centred Voices, based at the Health and Social Alliance Scotland) and Ima Abdulrahim (Co-Founder and Co-Director of Cerita Caravan) discussing their experiences with storytelling.

In this article, we’ll summarise five key insights from the episode that highlight the power of storytelling and why governments should value stories. Listen to the full episode below or click here.

Five reasons why governments should value stories

Here’s five reasons why stories should be at the core of equitable governance - covered in a special episode of Reimagining Government.

They help us understand community issues

Early in the episode, the hosts speak about how stories can help us understand what’s important to communities so governments can respond better. Rosie said:

“I don’t think there's a clear difference between communications and storytelling. Of course, the two overlap. But when I think about communications as a communications professional, I do that with a clear objective in mind. You say, ‘Well, this is what I want this person to do as a result of hearing this story, and this is what I want to change when I think about storytelling’. I think let's just take some time to sit together. Let’s get to know each other's lives and get to learn a bit more about what's important, and then we'll see what emerges from it.”

She continued:

“When governments go in with ‘What’s the problem here?’, ‘What services do they need?’, and ‘What do they need us to fix?’, they miss out on actually hearing what's important to people. And creating the space for it to be a story rather than just an assessment or consultation makes all the difference.”

They make people care

Rosie and Adrian went on to discuss the British Post Office scandal and the ITV drama that subsequently followed. Rosie talked about the impact the story had on the British public and how it helped people relate to one another. She said:

“When the story about the Post Office scandal came out, a lot of us were upset to learn what had happened. There was a great injustice done to people, and it’s considered one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history. But the scandal had existed for years.”

Rosie continued:

“It suddenly became this huge thing because there was a drama on ITV about it. People responded to it because it was told in a compelling way. It was a story people could relate to. And that’s the power of stories.”

They’re just as valuable as numbers

There’s no denying the importance of numbers. They help us compare, measure, and solve problems of all kinds. But as Rosie and Adrian highlighted, stories have just as much power. Rosie said:

“Of course, numbers are important. It's not that I think you have to throw them out and just listen to stories instead. And you know, instead of actually listening to the experiences of the subpostmasters, the Post Office chose instead to listen to what the computers told them about how the numbers were looking. But if they brought people together and allowed them to share their stories, they would've seen some common experiences happening, and there probably would've been a different response.”

Adrian added:

“This can also be applied to topics like dementia and caring at home for somebody with it. Whilst we can all look at the numbers and say, ‘Well, this many thousands of people have this condition’ or ‘This many thousands of people are in this caring situation’, the numbers feel so inadequate. They don’t actually share what that means at a human level. And that's where the stories are also so powerful.”

Rosie concluded:

“The numbers can tell us how much support people need, but they can't help us to understand what those people actually need and what will make their lives better. We should caution against thinking that numerical or quantitative data is more reliable than the data we hear through stories - because real peoples’ experiences are just as valuable.”

They connect people

Still referencing the British Post Office scandal, the episode also touched on the part stories play in connecting people. Rosie said:

“Stories connect people. For the people involved in the Post Office scandal, there was a lot of shame and isolation at play. And it was only when those people came together to speak about their experiences that they were able to join up, have a class action, and change things.”

Tommy Whitelaw then spoke about his experience caring for his mother. He said:

“As someone who cared for my mum for a long time, I became painfully isolated and lost. I felt invisible. I stumbled into caring for my mum and then stumbled through it, but I started to write a blog. It was the only place where I felt brave enough to write about how I felt, which then turned into asking people to share their stories with me. And actually, those stories helped me understand that I wasn't alone and that other people were facing the same struggles. When I look back, I learned more about caring from my mom from other people's stories than I did from the professionals.”

They help build relationships between governments and communities

With a need for governments and communities to be better connected, the co-hosts also spoke about how stories can help build those relationships and bridge the disconnect. Rosie said:

“We can use stories to do relationship work - to build the relationships both within community and between government and community. But I don't think a government official could just go to somebody's door and say, ‘Tell me that story’. I don't think it would work that way.”

Ima explained that it’s not just about what governments ask, but how they ask it. She shared an experience from her home country, Indonesia.

“They ask ‘What is it you need?’ in a certain way. And then the village head would answer in two different ways, either with pride or fear. Fear because they think, ‘If I answer, I do need something, they'll scold me.’ Or, they'll answer with pride because they want to show they've actually built their village or region. It's like, ‘No sir, of course, we don't need anything. We're doing so well.’”

She added:

“And so it's in the framing of how the question is asked. But by asking in a way that then extracts a story from them to say what is needed in that village, or what is needed in that region for the constituents, you get a different outcome.”

The full conversation about storytelling in government is available now on all major podcast listening platforms. To listen, use the player below or click here.