Leadership & Public Narrative

Learning & practising

 Where we are: conditions, level
• Situation (conditions):
o White territories (not under junta control)
o Mixed control territories
o Red territories (under junta control)
o In exile
o Any other?

• Level of operating:
o Local
o Regional
o National
o Multilevel
 What can be done?
• Local level: Self-resilience
o What are main challenges / problems / needs?
o What can be done to organize people (communities)?
o What are available resource?

• Regional & national level: Contribution to objectives of revolution

o What are main objectives?
o What should be priority in next three months?
o What we can do to contribute
Chose your group
Select group rapporteur & note-taker
Discuss and propose options
Share with others
Group 1 – White territory (non-junta controlled)
Group 2 – Mixed control territory
Group 3 – Junta controlled
Group 4 – Exile
What leaders do?
 “Disorganizations”
• They are divided. Divisions fragment the organization and sap it of its
resources.
• They are confused. Each person has a different story about what’s going on.
• They are passive. Most “members” do little, few people do all work.
• They are reactive. Always trying to respond to some unanticipated new
development.
• They are inactive. Few participate in meetings. No one shows up for
activities.
• They drift. There is little purposefulness to meetings, actions, or decisions as
things “drift” from one meeting to the next.
 Organizations that really work
• They are united. They manage their differences. Differences are openly debated,
discussed, and resolved.
• They share understanding. There is a widely shared understanding of what’s
going on, what the challenges are, what the program is and why we do what we
do.
• People participate. Lots of people are active - getting the work done.
• They take initiative. Rather than reacting to whatever happens, they are proactive.
• They act. People do the work they must to make things happen.
• They share a sense of purpose (meetings, actions, decisions lead somewhere) and
sense of forward momentum as work gets done.
 What leaders do?
• Turn division into solidarity by developing relationships
• Turns confusion into understanding by facilitating interpretation of what
is going
• Turn passivity into participation by motivation - inspiring people to
commit to the action
• Turn reaction into initiative by strategizing - thinking how to use
resources to achieve goals.
• Turns inaction into action by mobilizing people
• Transforms drift into purpose by accepting responsibility and by
challenging others to accept their responsibility as well.
Do you see yourself as a leader?
Fulfilling at least two or three functions of the leader from previous slide:
developing relationships, facilitating interpretation, inspiring others, strategizing,
mobilizing, challenging others to accept their responsibility
 Leadership
• Leadership –
• engaging others in purposeful action
• by mobilizing feelings that can enable a mindful “response”
(action) as opposed to a fearful “reaction” to te challenge
• Leadership requires engaging the heart (motivation), the head
(strategy), and the hands (action):
• Leader need to motivate, help formulate strategy, and lead into action
• Public narrative aims to mobilize hope over fear, solidarity over
alienation, and self-confidence over self-doubt.
Public narrative
 Leaders & “public narrative”

• Leaders need to be capable to formulate “public narrative”

• Public narrative is not script you learn to tell in front of others.
• Public narrative is your capacity to inspire and motivate others for
action – which means to help them overcome passivity or fear.
• Public narrative requires learning
• It can be learned only by speaking, listening, reflecting, and speaking
again – over, over and over.
• Leaders learn how to tell a “story of self”, “story of us” and “story of
now”
 Story of Self, Us, Now
• “Story of self” – telling why you have been called to give example (to
lead) Why I do what I do? Why I took responsibility and risk? What
and how I was called to fulfil the purpose?

• “Story of us” – telling about values we as community shares: Who we

are? What are our important values? What we stand for? What we want
and what we deserve? What is our HOPE

• “Story of now” – telling about urgent challenge to those values that

requires action. (What we can and should do now? What is at risk?)
• A story of self: Why were you called to motivate others to join you in this
action? What stories can you share that will enable others to “get you.”
How can you enable others to experience the values that move you not
only to act, but to lead?

• A story of us: To what values, experiences, or aspirations of your

community will you appeal when you call on them to join you in action?
What stories do you share that can express these values? Describe this “us”
in two or three sentences.

• A story of now: What urgent challenge do you hope to inspire others to

take action on? What is your vision of successful action? How can
members of your community act together to achieve this outcome? And
how can they begin now, at this moment? Describe this “now” in two or
three sentences.
Tell your own Story of Self
When you do public work (organizing, leadership), you have a responsibility to tell
who you are, why you do what you do, and where you hope to lead.
Good story include the challenges you faced, choices you made, and outcomes you
experienced (achieved).
Prepare to tell us the Story of
Self & Story of Hope next time
 Telling the Story
• Story needs to have beginning
• Beginning might have some aspiration
• You can be disturbed and challenged at the beginning
• Challenge can be threat but also an opportunity
• You have to deal with challenge. You accept responsibility
• You step in uncertainty
• You make mistakes
• You are overcoming challenge
Beginning, disruption, challenge, your
action, taking responsibility,
endeavouring and struggling,
overcoming obstacle
Message of the story: Insight and affirmation of value which turns to be more
important and more fundamental than initial aspirations and desires
Prepare to tell us the Story of
Self & Story of Hope next time
 Two examples

Barack Obama Speech at 2004 DNC Convention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWynt87PaJ0

Martin Luther King Speech: I have a Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4iY1TtS3s