The biggest challenge of our time (a professional speaker's societal anxiety)

I joined a parent group in my town which advocates for the responsible use of tech in education, because the trends aren't looking healthy.

I was asked a confronting question in a survey: "Why did you join us?"

I sort of blacked out and wrote something, but reading it again, I think my answer perfectly captures why I do my work too. It's why I advise experts and entrepreneurs and help build their ideas to be stronger, their talks and platforms to be more powerful, and their speaking systems and businesses to be more successful.

Here's how I answered that survey question...

I joined to make sure this group can communicate effectively in a way that actually gets heard.

Folks on the side of facts, science, and evidence tend to shove walls of smarts at the world in a way that’s more off-putting than engaging, leading to the opposition digging in or the message going overlooked by the intended audience (or worse: both).

We can’t just fight against something. We have to fight for something – and ensure we acknowledge the goals of other people who might not see it our way.

You can copy/paste this to all major issues right now: facts are losing to fear mongering and othering, and the solution is better storytelling on the side of facts.

That's about a succinct a rally cry as I could give for the urgency of this work. The side bringing facts, science, evidence, and empathy right now are not typically the strongest storytellers in a room. Or around an industry. Or in a school district.

That's a huge, society-wide problem. I know I'm extremely biased given my skillset, business, and clientele, but I believe this is one of the most significant challenges of our time: how do you get others to actually think and act better, to care and take action, driven by facts and evidence, not bias or ignorance or merely untested gut feel? The answer is to stop shoving facts and evidence at people.

\Most smart people tend to think that because they've got the truth in-hand or worked hard to earn their insight, they've earned the right to just put it out there and others will automatically care. But really, the most effective, influential voices learn to inspire others care. They don't demand it or assume it. They make the case.

For us to have a great society, business, or school, the people with substance and the desire to help others need to do that better. We all need to step up our communication game. Because right now, folks who are mostly hype and little else are winning out—and among them are some really bad actors too.

AI will only make this worse, because AI just accelerates or amplifies what's already true about a person. A bad actor gets to be a bad actor faster, at great scale, with more convincing trickery. (I can’t say this with any statistical validity, but it sure does seem like AI and most tech trends attract a larger percent of the wrong kinda person before the right kinds of people either catch up or fight back. This is a long, dense way of saying: I’m worried AI does more harm than good by letting non-experts be more convincing.)

The same can be said of storytelling and speaking, the twin engines of MY career and also what I teach others. They can turn a fact into a truth and a truth into something others actually accept. The best outcome most experts can hope for is that the audience absorbs their ideas. Meanwhile, an outcome a great storyteller or speaker regularly achieves is that people actually APPLY their ideas. The difference is real change.

Right now, facts are losing to fear. Which is to say, facts are losing to story. Because facts ALWAYS lose to story. People with facts tend to complain about that, but I'd rather they just face reality. We are a storytelling species. We're meaning-making machines. We are driven by feelings more than data, whims more than research. Headlines always shape opinion and action better than trendlines, even when they shouldn't (and they often shouldn't, especially online).

Rather than sit around wishing it were different, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. And if you need support, read, watch, or listen to my work. Or any expert in this space.

Because we need more experts who tell stories, not just storytelling experts.

To experts reading this, please remember:

What you know matters. But what you say and how you say it will determine if anyone cares.