Developing narratives and crafting messages will not be enough to bring about change. We have to embody them, to amplify them both offline and online and to ensure they circulate and reach the people we are targeting – outside of our like-minded bubbles. We can tap into creativity, humor, community, art, digital innovation – or whatever helps to inspire and mobilize. There is no one-fits-all approach, so it is important to adapt to your context and remain flexible.
Be the narrative, including in your personal life
It can be inspiring to talk about the change we want to see in the world, but it’s far more powerful when we are that change. When we embody our narrative in authentic ways, we show that alternatives to the perceived status quo are not only imaginable, but already alive in our actions. Narrative work means understanding our own and others’ values, using personal stories, and showing our ideas through everyday actions. Often, this begins in the places closest to us: conversations with family, neighbours, and people in our social circles can already help shift the narratives we live within.
This might feel daunting, especially when dealing with broad social or meta‑narratives. But even small or localized actions can challenge dominant frames. For example, the Indian feminist collective Parcham has confronted Islamophobic narratives and stereotypes about Muslim women by supporting young women football players, not only by enabling their participation in sports, but also by amplifying their stories on social media, running workshops on identity, engaging with families, and involving community leaders. These practical steps make an alternative narrative visible, relatable, and grounded in community experience.
For some people, disrupting dominant narratives is not a choice, it is simply part of their existence. Whether caring for their families, leading in their communities, or living openly and authentically, they challenge discriminatory narratives that target specific identities. This labour can be heavy and should not be romanticised. It calls on all of us to consider how we can offer support, uphold practices of care, and ensure that those bearing this weight are not left to carry it alone.
Use shared values and positive visioning to foster engagement
There is often an expectation that alternative narratives must be “against” something. But narrative work is not only about opposition, it’s about opening opportunities to talk about problems and solutions in a different way. We want to bring people along in imagining what could be possible, while still acknowledging the challenging realities they experience.
Narratives can inspire when they help us visualise futures worth striving for. That starts with us clearly expressing the world we want to create: What would things look like if we acted? How would our solutions work? And how can people be part of that change? A clear, hopeful vision makes space for others to join and contribute.
Ideally, people aren’t only exposed to your narrative, they participate in it. When people engage directly, they are more likely to internalise the alternative narratives you’re promoting and to carry them forward in their own stories and actions. Framing an issue around shared values can mobilise supporters and shift how people understand a topic. Even if individuals are not directly affected, they may act if they feel their core values are at stake.
The values that resonate will vary depending on the context and the groups you want to move, so it is important to understand what matters most to your audience. And throughout, remember to speak without technical jargon.
Get creative!
Creativity is a powerful way to capture attention. As activist Ishtar Lakhani reminds us, just because we work on serious issues doesn’t mean we must take ourselves seriously. Playfulness can open doors that traditional approaches cannot. In South Africa, a 2019 campaign with sex workers created a fictional political party: the Sex Workers Action Group (SWAG). This imaginative approach sparked curiosity, invited public engagement, and even brought SWAG into discussions and panels with political candidates. By using humour and surprise, and combining the effectiveness of activists with the emotional power of creative practitioners, it brought important issues into spaces they rarely reach.
If you’re not confident in your own creative skills or ideas, don’t worry: collaboration is key. Search for partners who bring creativity to the table, and make sure their contributions are valued equally. That means recognizing their work not just in words, but also through fair financial compensation—especially when others in the project are being paid.
However, creativity is not the goal, it’s a way to reach people on their own terms. It’s about meeting people where they are, both physically and culturally. This can mean bringing your narrative into the everyday spaces (offline and online) where your audience is present. For instance, Venezuelan organisation ProVene, used a food truck called La Nave to offer basic goods like water, food and charging stations to marginalised communities, along with free legal advice. This directly countered harmful narratives portraying human rights lawyers as detached or elitist and created connections with those most in need.
Find out what people find funny, meaningful, or worth sharing, and shape stories, messages, and actions that speak to those interests. Creative work becomes powerful when it is rooted in people’s realities and aligned with what they care about.
Want to go further?
- hope-based comms highlightedfive shifts to better narratives, that invite us to leverage a hope-based mindset to foster empathy and action.
- Spring Strategies offers resources, including a 28-minute audio, on radical imagination as a tool for tapping into our imagination skills to unlearn dominant narrative and spell out the future we want.
- Common Cause put together a values map that shows how different values cluster and connect. It highlights a group of benevolence values, which data suggests are especially important to people across many countries and contexts.
- Look at the This Mother’s Day video created by the Australian advocacy group People Like Us and the network Mums 4 Refugees. It reframes migration narratives by reminding viewers of the humanity of people in detention, connecting their experiences to the love and gratitude many of us feel for our mothers.
- The Narrative Spices: An invitational guide for flavorful human rights offers “ingredients”, reflective prompts, and practical tools to design your own context-specific approach.
- In the Art of Activism Workbook, you find exercises to explore creative methods to story telling and to crafting effective messaging.
- The Cinemata Currents film festival’s creative format allowed for the combination of screening impactful films with opportunities for deeper connection. Audiences could join online “Talk-back Sessions” and virtual workshops with filmmakers and subject-matter experts, fostering meaningful dialogue around the themes explored on screen. These virtual conversations were complemented by in-person watch parties across several Asian countries, offering intimate spaces for viewers to come together, reflect, and discuss.