I'm deep into thinking about and researching impact communications and how we "move" people. I came across a study about storytelling vs. data and how it relates to people's memory. The study found that people were twice as likely to remember a story later in the day than a statistic. However, data was more likely to create impact and deliver a "wow" factor. I love this because it highlights how essential these two elements are… not data and story, but making an impression and being remembered.

Much of the content we encounter aims to do more than just make an impression. I just re-watched The Social Dilemma. In it, Jaron Lanier talks about the attention economy and how it's not just about capturing attention, but about making very slight changes to people’s behavior.

These days, most attention is captured to sell advertising encouraging us to consume things. The message: consume our delicious food and you will be happy, buy our novel objects and your life will be easier, consume our opinions and you will feel you are on the right side.

This is where questions of culture get interesting! The wonderful and hopeful thing about culture is that we are co-creating it all the time: from my nuclear family to my neighborhood and school community to my city, state, and beyond. Every action we take, even the thoughts we have, are building culture.

Let me bring this back to impact communications, story and data. Yes, we are definitely trying to change behavior! Fortunately the people I get to work with aren't just trying to get people to buy a new milk steamer. We may have some relatively small behavior change goals like getting people to donate to our organization. We may have broader goals for not just our organization, but the movement we're part of. We can have an even bigger vision to shift the entire landscape of how people think about money, change, investment and justice.

And then there is the culture change embedded in HOW you communicate. When you share a story in your annual report or website, who are you centering? Is there a savior narrative or are people's dignity and power being lifted up? The words and images you choose are building culture too.

Whew, that's a lot to consider. Aren't we overwhelmed enough?

Yet here I am, a human, sitting with my bare feet on a tile floor, my coffee annoyingly lukewarm, writing my newsletter with the hopes of changing behavior and shifting culture.

There's the outer circle, where I hope reading this will inspire you to think of me and my company as someone you want to hire to amplify your impact.

A level deeper, I want to see culture center human connection more. I'm doing this by connecting to my own humanity and writing from my heart.

I would also like to see the world slow down. Between Trump and AI, the past year feels like we're living in a centrifuge. Dr. Báyò Akómoláfé says "The times are urgent, let us slow down."

So I also write this in the spirit of slowness. How are you trying to change people's behavior and shift culture? Want to do it together?

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