Why Stories Matter¶

This section provides background on storytelling as an advocacy tool, it will help you understand why stories are so helpful in to creating change.

Stories Are How Humans Make Sense of Change¶

Long before data visualisations and policy briefs, humans made sense of the world through stories. Stories give abstract ideas a human face, connect evidence to lived experience, and make it possible to imagine a future that does not yet exist.

In organisational contexts, storytelling helps to build the relational and emotional conditions that make change possible. Research on organisational change consistently shows that storytelling supports learning, strengthens collective identity, and builds the trust needed to navigate uncertainty together (Buganza et al., 2023; Parker Moon et al., 2023).

If you want to change how your institution operates, you need people to feel that change is both necessary and possible.

Stories are one of the most effective ways to help people understand why change matters and what successful change could look like.

Quote

"Storytelling can challenge dominant narratives that sustain the status quo, and open up alternative futures." — Erinma Ochu

Different Stories Do Different Jobs¶

Not all stories serve the same purpose. Understanding the different types helps you choose the right one for the moment.

Burning platform stories¶

A burning platform story makes visible why the status quo is unsustainable — the risks, pressures, and consequences of not acting. It creates a sense of urgency. In environmental advocacy, this might be a concrete account of what your institution's current computing footprint actually means in practice, or what will happen to funding if Concordat reporting requirements are not met.

Used alone, burning platform stories can feel threatening or demoralising. They work best when paired with a vision of what change looks like.

Vision stories¶

A vision story offers a compelling account of where you could be heading, what the organisation looks like once the change has been made, and why it matters. It connects the proposed change to values people already hold (good science, fairness, responsibility, reputation).

Vision stories are particularly useful when approaching senior leaders who need to see the bigger picture before committing to specifics.

Springboard stories¶

A springboard story is a concrete example of successful change — ideally one that is close enough to your context that people can recognise themselves in it. It answers the unspoken question: has anyone actually done this? And it shifts the conversation from whether change is possible to how to make it happen (Denning, 2000).

This is why case studies and real examples are so powerful in advocacy. When a researcher hears that another university successfully embedded carbon reporting into their HPC service with minimal disruption, the resistance rooted in "it can't be done here" loses some of its force.

Champion and trailblazer stories¶

These stories frame change as a collective journey, positioning the advocates as active agents navigating real challenges, learning as they go, and making progress. They help build community and shared identity among people working on similar problems in different institutions.

Stories Work Both Top-Down and Bottom-Up¶

It is important to understand that storytelling in organisations can flow in both directions.

Leadership narratives set direction, create momentum, and signal institutional commitment. When a senior leader tells a story about why sustainability matters to them personally, it changes the environment for everyone working on the issue below them.

Bottom-up stories are equally powerful. When staff share accounts of what is actually happening on the ground — what the barriers are, what has worked, what the numbers mean in practice — they ground strategic priorities in lived reality. These stories create a feedback loop that keeps institutional change grounded in what is actually happening.

For advocates operating without formal authority, bottom-up stories are often the most accessible tool. Your direct experience — the computing job that used more energy than you expected, the grant application that had nowhere to record sustainability commitments — is evidence. Framed well, it is compelling evidence.

Stories Connect Local Action to Wider Change¶

Beyond individual organisations, storytelling plays a critical role in building momentum across the sector. When researchers and RSEs share what has worked in their institution — in conference talks, blog posts, community calls, or informal conversations — they create the social proof that makes change feel possible elsewhere.

This is how norms shift. Not through a single policy announcement, but through accumulated stories of people doing things differently, and those stories spreading.

Tip

One of the most useful things you can do as an advocate is collect stories deliberately. When a colleague changes how they run their computing jobs, ask them about it. When a department shifts its travel policy, find out how it happened. These stories are assets — keep them, share them, and use them.