So today, we're going to be exploring the fourth box, and we're going to have an imaginative time together today. So shake off your task oriented day, and our invitation is for you to be open to experimentation and play.
Okay, so in this model, what do we see here? We see that capitalism is at the top of an iceberg. This is the stories and the narratives that we see every day that rise above the surface, but below the surface, there's a whole shelf of ice that upholds this iceberg. And those are all the underlying assumptions that we also call deep narratives, that we don't even see, that we don't even know that they're there. We only see what's on top. So the underlying assumptions actually uphold the stories that we see above the surface. It's a mental model of all the belief systems and prevailing values that we hold that we're not aware of. It's unconscious biases and the accepted norms that we don't even question. So as Communications Workers, we're speaking a lot to our audiences. We want to think about what are their underlying assumptions, what are their values and morals and behaviors that need to be accepted for the stories to be believed, for your narratives to be believed? So it is a systems thinking approach. We've seen this iceberg a lot in systems thinking, and so if you're aware of what's lying deep below the surface, then you're better equipped to challenge those assumptions, right, and offer new visions and solutions, and you can be intentional about creating your messaging and Stories and adding a race class analysis to him, and so what about our assumptions? What are we lifting up? We need to challenge dominant narratives that keep us stuck in the vicious cycle of control mythologies by asserting a more liberatory and mind blowing future full of beautiful possibilities. And that creates the aha moment for people to want to join us, for them to believe our stories, to come to our sides as workers for advocacy and for justice. So we need to shift all those underlying assumptions that have put us in the place we're in now with rising authoritarianism, and those were all, you know, fear based assumptions that lead to xenophobia and anti immigrant sentiment. So one could say that the status quo is upholding the power that is there now, but that status quo is actually put that power in place now, with our underlying assumptions of a two party electoral system and the corporate capture politics, so in the next slide, most people see that power is held at The top by a few and flows down and that that that they have the strength and the power to stay stable like that. But in reality, power is like the inverted triangle, where it really just rests on a tip that can topple over at any moment, and we keep them propped up with these pillars of support. And so we can say in this case that the pillars of support are the status quo assumptions that are holding up and propping that power up over us. So as narrative strategists, we want to look for wedges, and we want to make narrative interventions that will knock those pillars down. In the next slide we're going to show a video, it'simportant to distinguish between equality and equity. Equality means everyone gets the same thing. Equity means each student gets what he or she needs to succeed.
Great. So in this slide, what are those underlying or in that story? What are the underlying assumptions in the story? What do we need to believe in order to believe that this story is true. And some people will say that we have a certain definition of success, like what creates success, or that we all need the same thing, but those are assumptions that we can actually challenge. So if we go to the next slide. Let's watch another video. So what changes about the story in this video, right? Suddenly we see a different assumptions being lifted up, assumptions about compassion, right? Or that we even need to hit hit the pinata, right? Like, why do we need to hit this pinata? But the pinata, it's, it's such an embedded cultural game that we play, that we don't even question it right until you're a small child that suddenly sees the humanity in that pinata. So these are like how we want to change our relationships, and then that will also how we change our relationships to an object, will then change how we treat that object. And so by challenging the assumptions in these stories, actions can change too.
All right, that brings us to the fourth box. That's the main tool that we're going to be using today. It was created by the Center for story based strategy, as well as the other organizations listed on the screen. And really, this tool relies a lot on what Nadia just went over, these underlying assumptions beneath our stories, and these kind of new radical ways of looking at things. So again, here's another example of equality versus equity. You know, this is pretty similar to that first video, right? And then we decided to play with this a little bit, so we added a third box, and that here is liberation. What if the fence wasn't there at all? We use the fence as an example of an underlying assumption. Just because the fence is there in the photo, we don't really think about, you know, can we take it out? It doesn't need to be there. Who put it there? And the fourth box is all about challenging those assumptions to then envision a radical future. So that's how we got the idea to add the next box. Because even though liberation, obviously is an improvement on equity, we wanted to think even beyond that. What comes after liberation? What can we imagine that is, you know, a totally radical invitation to our audience. So we ended up putting this out there as a tool and soliciting some ideas from folks who played with it. So these were a few of the submissions that we got. Instead of liberation, we have inclusion, where now they're not just watching the baseball game. They're playing the baseball game. We also got an example to show reality. So instead of assuming that everyone is standing on equal footing or everyone has one box to stand on, we illustrated the reality that some people might be both tall and have a lot of boxes, while other people might be starting actually from below the ground in the real world. And so these are just some ways you could play with it, both to imagine kind of something better and something maybe more realistic out in the world. Then we you know, that got us thinking what came before the first box. So we added box zero. And, you know, again, we think about the fence. We think about the underlying assumptions. Who put the fence there, who built the baseball stadium, all of those things. So when we started thinking about the the box zero, initially, this was kind of what we came up with. We started kind of in a linear fashion, going from reality to equality to equity to liberation and then inclusion, you know, kind of slow improvements over time. That tends to be kind of the status quo narrative in America, right? But, you know, then it kind of occurred to us that that's actually reinforcing an assumption in itself. And so we rethought that if we go to the next slide, we wanted to think about again, like how. Did that fence get there in the first place? So if you want to click on that, we realized that someone built it right. So before there was this reality of total inequality, there actually was a more equal time in nature, before capitalism intervened before oppression, oligarchs, all of those things intervened, right? So we started from instead liberation, and then that made it so much clearer in the second and third box, that equality and equity as we conceive of them are actually not all that radical, right? And you know, again, here are we just returning to box zero at the end? Are we thinking beyond what you know, maybe is the natural order without these oppressive structures, what can we build that's even better than liberation? So it's a pretty fun tool to mess around with. We're going to invite folks first to do a solo reflection time. We're going to give you about 10 minutes. We want you to just play with this a little bit. I invite you to think about, you know, which box represents your work in your campaign, while we might want to aim for liberation or something more. You know, often we are having to kind of work piecemeal. We might be having to advocate for equality or advocate for equity. So where is your work currently? Also think about what is the current reality? Is the current reality equality or equity, or is it, you know, that other illustration of reality where people are below the ground? We also want you to think, what's the fence in the issue that you're working on? What is the assumption that's kind of undergirding everything. And what did someone build to get where you are today? And finally, the fourth box. What would the fourth box look like after your fence is removed? And what might you need to get there? What is the really radical future? Again, not just liberation, not just something that's better. What is the most radical idea you can think of that would might help inspire your audience. Could be a very long term vision, but that's what we're kind of looking for here. So we'll send you for a few minutes to go work on this, and then we'll move into small groups.
Okay, so we're gonna head into small groups now, hopefully that solo time felt fruitful for you, and so we're moving to small groups. People have often said that meeting with each other and shared space feels impactful. So if we go to the next slide, we have some instructions for you. Okay, here's some guidelines for the small group space. Take. So let's see we have 17 minutes. Take three minutes to introduce yourselves, your organization, your pronouns, and any accessibility needs you have take 12 minutes to discuss what your fence is and what is your fourth box. And we have the shared slide deck. If you actually wanted to play like, grab a slide for yourself, put your name in there, and you can play in there if you wanted to put in some imagery or thoughts or text about what your fourth box is. So discuss what your fence is that you're that are those underlying assumptions that you're challenging. And then we'll do a share back, if you can just take a couple minutes to decide who from your group will do a share back and what questions came up for you all, and we'll have some time for group discussion at the end of today's session. Are there any questions before we go into small groups?
All right, we actually have about five extra minutes, by the way, so we can work in groups until 12 or the end of the hour.
At the top of the hour, we'll, okay, great. So more time for small group discussions. That's always great, because often people get cut off and they always feel short. So we'll pop in the shared slides again, and Val will break you into your small groups.
Alright? So we have about 10 minutes here to talk about what happened in the small groups, what happened in your solo reflections. If there's anything that came up that was either a challenge, an aha moment, a question you're thinking about, or any you know, fourth boxes, box zeros, fences that you want to share with us, the floor is yours. Feel free to pop it in the chat, or go off mute and tell us as a group.
I think one of the things that came up in our conversation was that the idea of as we were discussing this and looking at the boxes we helped us think about who are. Our audiences are, and how to it can understanding that can help us with messaging and to be more strategic and get better results.
Yeah, absolutely. Audience, of course, is very important in any kind of communications. And yeah, when we teach story based strategy, this is actually one of the last tools we get to after we've done, you know, some audience analysis and things like that. So I'm glad to hear that came up and that was part of the discussion. Anyone else have things they want to share from the groups? Yeah, Annie,
I have a group share and then an individual Aha, if that's okay. Our group share was really awesome. And one of the examples we talked about was a passion for like clean energy and wanting to represent that space, and trying to think about, what is the fence book, what is on the field? And you almost can't figure out what the fence is until you figure out what's on the field. And so we started talking about the differences between maybe, if we don't have our fourth box figured out yet, but our first and second box of like equality and equity are things like, you know, government subsidies, or, you know, a tax credit for a certain thing that pops up a box but it's still not accessible for everyone, and our group was really trying to explode out by trying to figure out our fourth box is that people playing the actual baseball, or people sitting in the audience instead of in the outfield. But my individual AHA as we were talking, was a little bit of the key antagonist being for this, being effective, being time. Because one of our examples was a little bit about, like colonization, and how, if you stretch it out over centuries, that becomes really inaccessible, and so how to make it feel current and immediate, but time also being the antagonist of if what's on the field is what we like should all deserve, or have access to that historically, can get you into very quickly, like Maga, kind of conversations of like, this is what we're told we deserve. And so that's kind of a key thing to think about as you're formulating.
Yeah, I love that. I love that you took the metaphor even further, and we're thinking about the field, the players, and also it sounds like the boxes that people were standing on, too. That is exactly the kind of thinking that we do. So it's great to hear, all right, any other folks, what came up?
Can I just comment on that? I just think it's really interesting about what you were, what you said about the field, and what we deserve and what we have access to, but how that could open up to to play into the Maga narratives and and so, yeah, it's, I think really thinking through that we're not re re asserting those dominant narratives. Like reinforcing those dominant narratives is always a slippery trap, a slippery slope, a trap that we often can fall into is just kind of just reinforcing that. So what are like the alternatives that we're offering?
Yeah, yeah, it's a slippery silk, but at the same time, if you can do it exactly right, it can help you kind of reach audiences that you normally wouldn't reach right. If you can take the good part of it and then challenge the part that is against your vision, that can be really effective. Because it turns out a lot of people actually agree on many of the same things, and we can challenge the parts that we don't agree. We can get really far, all right. Other folks,
yeah, Courtney, I really appreciated being able to talk with our group, and I main theme that I feel like we landed on was the necessity of having an abundance mindset when imagining what happens in the fourth box. Because I think we were recognizing in some of the work that we were doing in in trying to be creative about what the future that we're striving for looks like, there is, like an easy pitfall of getting stuck in like, the near future, of like working within the existing systems and like limitations that we're facing. But it was great to be able to brainstorm together about like, different sources of wisdom and inspiration, to be pulling a more imaginative, imaginative future from and being able to really appreciate and like uphold like artists or like indigenous folks or like Palestinians, like just different movements and spaces that we can learn from to create what that fourth box might mean for us. Yeah,
that's great. That's exactly what this tool is getting at. You know, obviously. In many of our campaigns, we have to kind of think in the short term. But, you know, especially when we're trying to reach our audiences, we're trying to reach new audiences. I feel like it's much more activating to people when they can imagine, you know, a much better future instead of a marginally better future. And I think we get afraid sometimes to promise things maybe that we can't deliver, but it's really more about building toward the long term vision, I feel like that's actually something often that our opponents do a little bit better than us, not that their future is radical and wonderful, but it is often like something that maybe won't get done for 50 years. You know, how long have they been working on taking over the judicial system? But hey, they've done it now. So what is our big goal in the future that you know each organization might take a tiny piece of Alright, anything else that came up for people? Any questions, clarifications, aha, moments, things you want to brag about. First, I'll share that if you want to learn more about the fourth tool or the fourth box, there is information on the center for story based strategy website. Story based strategy.org if you can, or actually let me get these links in the chat for you. Or actually, no, they're not live links. They're a screenshot. But if you search the website for the fourth box, you should be able to find this stuff and be able to play around with it a little bit more, share it with people on your team, if you'd like to as well. There's a whole workshop online that you can use.
Thank you. All right, so of course, please take the survey. I am putting it into the chat right now. We'd really appreciate any feedback. We're always trying to make all of these sessions better for you all, and we always are asking for new topics as well. If there's something you're really wanting to be in community around, because these spaces are really not just meant for, you know, learning and sort of webinar style. But yes, thank you, Megan, the collaboration takes everyone further and just a chance to connect, because sometimes we feel so siloed, alone in our organization. So please share your thoughts and ideas with us, and we really appreciate that. And then the next piece here, we have a couple things coming up, so if you found this really helpful and effective, Nadia and Ian are going to be sharing their their thoughts and wisdom and skills in a narrative cohort that will run for the next four to six months, starting in mid May. Hopefully, I know there's a lot of uncertainty for everyone right now, and so if we need, if people are needing us to postpone a little bit, we might be able to do that. But if you're interested, please visit the website, sign up. Thank you. Nadia, put the link in the chat, and then in June, our our next round table will be about analytics into action and thinking not just about audiences, like what came up today, and how we can sort of understand our audiences better and what information they're looking for, and how to take some of that data and actually do something with it that can be more Effective for our websites and our communications, and just understanding how people are interacting with our organizations. And then we'll take a hiatus over the summer, and in September, we'll talk more about building our brands, and hopefully everyone by then, we'll have a little bit firmer footing and in what our sort of landscape is starting to look like, and so will give us an opportunity to talk and work through brand ideas together as well. So in the closing, as we head out for today, please share one insight into the chat with us. We want to you know, hear what felt important to you, or what felt really in line with what you're hoping to move into. And with that, if you have any questions, here are Ian and Nadia's contact information, and I'll drop that in the chat also, as well as mine. And you're always welcome to reach out to any of us. We're here to answer questions or be a thought partner or just really anything that you might need. So
yeah, hopefully we'll see some of you in the cohort where we can dig into all of this stuff much more deeply. We have a lot more tools where this came from.
Yeah, the cohort should be a really great time. It'll be meeting twice a month, and have some office hours over the summer, and really be a way to, you know, not just be in community in this way, but to work on things more deeply, work on specific. Specific campaigns towards kind of both your own or your own organization, as well as being able to work together on kind of larger messaging and campaign work as a group as well. So our hope is that there'll be some cross collaboration, as well as just a space for you to get support and do some, you know, problem solving and and be in community. So we hope that you will join us. Anything else Ian or Nadia
that's good for me? Just appreciate,
yeah, appreciating all of your participation and aha moments and ideas and thoughts that came up. Always a learning experience to learn from all of you too. Take
