I’ve been wracking my brains, trying to conjure up a new and original blog post to write on storytelling—the value of brand narratives and sustainability stories. Then I watched the video of Greta Thunberg, who in her address to the delegates UN Climate Action Summit declared that it’s time to “tell it like is.”
That evening—yesterday, in fact—I attended a reception for the International Center for Journalists where Joyce Barnathan, the organization’s president said that, “As the risks for reporters get higher and higher, it’s time to join forces and back a free press because nothing less than our democracies are at stake.” She also talked about recently attending a US journalism conference, where the venue was protected by armed security guards.
This morning, I read an op-ed by New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger, who chillingly described how journalists everywhere are under threat. “Over the last few years, however, something has dramatically changed,” wrote Sulzberger. “Around the globe, a relentless campaign is targeting journalists because of the fundamental role they play in ensuring a free and informed society. To stop journalists from exposing uncomfortable truths and holding power to account, a growing number of governments have engaged in overt, sometimes violent, efforts to discredit their work and intimidate them into silence.”
Meanwhile, in the face of the threats to journalists and journalism, those of us in the business of social-good communications refer to “storytelling.” Storytelling to elevate your brand. Storytelling to connect with your consumer audience. Storytelling to demonstrate your company’s commitment to social good.
Storytellers, as we know, are often truth embellishers if not outright truth deniers. They exaggerate for effect. While their goal may be to tell a universal truth, they don’t necessarily go about it by telling the truth.
Sustainability storytelling? Shouldn’t we be talking about truth telling? If companies want to proclaim that they’re redefining the role of business in our society, as the CEO members of the Business Roundtable recently did, then as communications professionals, we need to do better than help these companies tell their stories. We need to help them share their truths.
If companies are walking the walking for real—setting clearly articulated and measurable targets with timelines and deadlines—around carbon emissions, energy efficiency, diversity—then high time to tell it like it is. No more stories.