Storytelling’s true nature seems to allude to us when viewed through our over-rationalistic and technocratic mindsets. But is there something fundamental that we are missing in our understanding of the nature of storytelling, and if so, how can we use this insight to bring about positive changes to the issues that we care about? 

Whatever your cause or purpose may be, whether it is environmental, humanitarian or any other aspect of working towards the common good, we will all, at some point, encounter a strange paradox when trying to engage and motivate our audiences into action. This can simply be referred to as the motivation gap, the gap between what people say they believe in, and what they actually do. 

This is a highly frustrating aspect of our work, especially when we consider that issues such as climate change and social inequality, the case for urgent action has been effectively communicated, and the pathways on how to bring about positive change have been clearly outlined. And yet we still encounter widespread apathy, indifference and polarisation from a whole range of audiences, and – even more frustratingly – we encounter the ‘thin yes’ with those audiences who claim to support our cause, but who fail to sign up, show up or take action in any meaningful way. 

The reasons for this is nothing to do with a lack of skill, energy or passion on our behalf, but rather a lack of understanding of ourselves and what motivates us. The result is that we tend to use the wrong motivation type to try to drive positive behaviour, resulting in the conditions we are witnessing today, including audience fragmentation, increasing polarisation, as well as growing apathy and indifference to some of the most important and urgent issues we face today. 

Only until we change this motivation type, can we begin to overcome some of the perennial problems we all seem to face when trying to engage audiences towards positive change in our world.

There are broadly two types of motivation, one is extrinsic, the other intrinsic. To drive extrinsic motivation requires a trigger, and that trigger is usually based on fear, guilt, duty, ego, or any other of our lower values. This motivation type is ideal for creating short-term results, but terrible at creating long-term behaviour change. As this motivation type tends to create anxiety, it can be seen as a psychological pollutant. If we imagine this motivation type as an engine, it would be a fossil-fuelled engine. The engine works, but at a cost, and that cost is felt in the long term as the psychological pollutants increase over time. 

Intrinsic motivation, by comparison, works in an entirely different way and requires a different set of triggers. These triggers are found when we create a dynamic tension around our higher values, connect our audiences to a higher purpose, create a sense of belonging and work with storytelling dynamics to drive positive and long-term behaviour change. If this motivation type was an engine, it would be an electric engine, that is self-powered, has no psychological pollutants and thrives when it plays to higher values. 

If we are serious about creating long-term behaviour change, then switching from an extrinsic to an intrinsic motivational engine is essential. Using an extrinsic engine, which is a psychologically polluting engine, to try to drive positive change makes no real sense, and yet we can see that most organisations and movements will use extrinsic motivation to drive all of their campaigns, fundraisers, volunteer recruitment strategies and all different types of audience engagement. 

The reason why we tend to lean towards the lower end of the motivation continuum is no coincidence. The reason for this clear trend can be explained by the dominant approach to audience engagement, which is through marketing theory and practices. We call this the marketing paradigm, and escaping from this paradigm and shifting towards a storytelling paradigm is essential if we want to bring about real change on the issues we care about.

This shift from marketing to storytelling means that we must be willing to think about using an intrinsic motivational engine for everything that we do. This necessary shift in focus from creating short-term deliverables to long-term behaviour change is essential if we are to overcome some of the stubborn issues around low motivation, growing apathy and polarisation of our audiences.