STORY BANK TOOLKIT

How to Build a Strong Story Lead

Collecting Stories

However your organization engages in collecting stories, it’s important to make sure that the people in your organization know how to approach a potential storyteller and how to capture the right kind of information for follow-up.

By training your staff to build a strong story lead (the basic information about the story you’re collecting, like the person’s name, contact info, and a few details about the story), you can save yourself the hassle of tracking down crucial information later in the process and help guarantee that your staff members are collecting valuable stories.

It’s important that those collecting stories capture the most helpful information—details your organization will need when developing stories (fact-checking and interviewing). See “How to Turn a Lead into a Developed Story” in Developing Stories. To ensure that members of your organization are collecting stories in the most efficient, helpful, and personable manner, consider offering a training. We’ll discuss how to train people to collect stories in another piece, “How to Train People to Collect Stories” (in Collecting Stories). But in the meantime, let’s discuss what people should be looking for and the kinds of information they should record during these initial conversations.

Most of the time, when someone collects a story, she only has a few minutes with the storyteller. It can be challenging to take all of the notes needed to fully develop a story and talk to the person about what it means to share his story with an organization. When you add in the chaos of a waiting line or a busy location, like a fair, it’s

There are many ways your organization can collect stories in person. Depending on your organizational structure and activities, you may choose to collect stories at events, while providing direct services, or in other kinds of interactions.

nearly impossible to dedicate the attention required for every step of developing a story.

The best course of action is for the story bank collector to jot down a few notes about the person’s story and his contact information (the story lead), set an expectation to follow up with him, and follow your organization’s protocol for entering data and developing the story.

Once your organization trains people on how to collect a story lead, you can begin integrating collecting stories into several aspects of your work. The more people who know how to help in this effort, the more stories you’ll be able to collect.

People collecting stories don’t need to be experts. They will need to know only a few things about what your organization is looking for, what to collect, and how to ask someone to share his story. This makes it a lot easier to spread out the task of collecting stories among many members of your organization.

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Collecting Stories

Best Practices for Capturing the Right Information in a Story Lead

Since a person collecting stories may have only a few minutes with a potential storyteller, and he may not be the same person who follows up with her, it’s important for him to capture the right information. The most helpful information includes:

» Full name

» Contact information (minimum one method, but preferably two, in case the first method doesn’t work)

» Address (city and state, or zip code)

» Information about her story

» Language preference

» Details about where and when the staff person collected her story

Your organization may decide to collect other information, but the items listed above are a recommended minimum.

These details will provide enough information to:

» Know how to get in touch with the storyteller for an interview and future storytelling opportunities

» Keep track of where the story came from and when it was collected

» Know how to prioritize follow-up

» Provide details to help an interviewer prepare to develop the story (See “How to Interview Storytellers” in Developing Stories)

This information will also help jog the person’s memory when an interviewer follows up with her later. For example, by noting the above information, an interviewer could later reach out to the individual to schedule an interview and say, “I’m following up on the conversation my colleague, Joe, had with you at the Seattle enrollment fair in November.” Sometimes people need a reminder, and the more information you give, the better.

Provide guidance on the most helpful elements to note in a story

Much of the information someone captures when collecting a story is straightforward. But some of it can be challenging. For example, when collecting information about a person’s story, some people will feel pressured to write multi-paragraph summaries of stories, while others will provide unhelpful kinds of information (or no information at all).

It’s important to strike a balance between the two extremes. The information in a story lead doesn’t need to be novel-length, but it does need to contain the right kinds of details. It’s important to provide guidance to the people collecting stories on the kinds of information your organization wants.

Examples of Story Leads

The following examples are based on organizations’ efforts to collect stories from people enrolling in the health insurance marketplaces. Some of these notes are more complete than others. And some, as you’ll see, are not very useful. For the purposes of this exercise, we are including only information about the story, as opposed to the full lead (which would contain contact information, location, and other details about collection).

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Collecting Stories

Examples of story lead notes that lack essential information

The least helpful leads are those that do not offer a clear picture of the story and provide little information about the storyteller. Consider the following:

Esther: (703) 555-5555. [No additional notes.]

James: jimmy1990@aol.com. Subsidy $140. Pays $2.

Ray: raybantheman@gmail.com. Glad he can go to the doctor.

Robyn: 333-333-3312; tweettweet@aol.com. Thinks everyone was nice and attentive.

Rachel: [no contact information]. Filled out paperwork.

In these five examples, we don’t get a clear picture of these people or what their stories are. It’s also unclear who they are, why they are important, if they received health coverage at all, or what their health insurance status is. There’s no specific reason why an organization should follow up with them. For all we know, some of these people may not have any experience with enrollment in the marketplaces.

This lack of information can affect any follow-up interviews or conversations. The person who’s responsible for prioritizing developing the story may place less value on immediate follow-up because it’s not clear what the story contains or how to get in touch with someone. An organization could miss valuable stories if this is the only type of information collected. Plus, it would be difficult for an interviewer to prepare for any follow-up with these individuals. The interviewer wouldn’t know what to anticipate.

Examples of story lead notes that are useful

The best leads are those that are short, concise, and contain information that is helpful to the people prioritizing follow-up and interviewing. We have defined some terms in brackets, but when you are collecting information for a story lead, you do not need to define anything.

Maria Hernandez: (123-234-5678, mariahern@ymail.com) Maria is in her 30s. She enrolled in a plan with a tax credit [meaning she gets financial assistance to help her pay for her health insurance plan] at an enrollment fair in early March. This is the first time she has had health insurance since high school.

Use Standard Collection Tools to Help Capture Information

It can help to have standard tools ready to go for any opportunity to collect stories. Consider developing postcards, forms, and other creative pieces to help people collecting stories when they encounter storytellers. These tools can help standardize the kinds of information you capture and provide guidance. Make these tools available to people who will be collecting stories on a regular basis. See “Sample Collecting Forms” (in Building an Infrastructure) for examples of different kinds of forms.

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Collecting Stories

Jane Mencher: (986-234-1234, janiegirl@juno.com) Jane was in a bad car accident a year ago. She didn’t have health insurance and used an inheritance to pay all of her bills. She hasn’t been able to go to physical therapy and is worried that her broken bones haven’t set correctly. She lost her job after the accident and is looking for work. She made an appointment with an assister to see if she can qualify for Medicaid. “I just hope this works.”

Emily Gilbert: (423-123-5678) Emily came to the clinic for a dental checkup. She has a broken tooth and hasn’t been to the dentist in a year. She is uninsured and didn’t look during open enrollment because she assumed everything would be out of her price range. She’s pre-diabetic and takes prescription samples from a local clinic. Her kids are on CHIP.

These examples are at the other end of the continuum: The information in these examples tells us some background about the individual, current insurance status, and type of experience she has had (with or without health insurance).

Some of these notes are short enough for the story collector to jot down on the backs of business cards, yet they still provide enough context about the individual’s story to help make follow-up conversations fairly easy. The person who follows up w-ith these people will have enough information to know which questions to ask.

Examples of story leads that may not be useful

People collecting stories should also be aware of the kinds of stories that appear to be helpful at first glance but that create additional challenges when it comes time to develop them.

Fred Klaus: (fklaus999@gmail.com) Fred enrolled in health insurance and received a tax credit [financial assistance to help pay for his plan]. He has COPD and is overdue for a checkup with his doctor. Fred is not interested in sharing his story.

Lisa Goodman: (456-789-1012) Lisa’s neighbor’s cousin had a great experience with Obamacare.

Whoever collected Fred’s story successfully captured that he enrolled in health insurance and has a medical condition. But there is also a specific note stating that he is not interested in sharing his story. If that’s the case, there’s no reason to follow up with him.

Lisa, on the other hand, is an example of a story several times removed. Organizations should anticipate that well-meaning people will want to tell the stories of their loved ones and friends. In some situations, this will be appropriate. The subject of the lead may be unable to communicate his own story due to age, death, illness, or other factors. For those kinds of scenarios, a child, parent, or caregiver will be the best substitute.

You should plan to collect every person’s contact information, even if your organization plans to share the individual’s story only in a “micro-narrative” (short

version of a story that is a phrase or paragraph in length) or through social media. You never know when you might want to plug a storyteller into another opportunity or when a reporter will call, wanting to speak with “that person on your website.”

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Collecting Stories

Some of these leads lend themselves more readily to follow-

up conversations. One tactic that can make it easier for people is to pretend someone calls you and leaves a message with a colleague. What kind of information should the person taking the message record? In many ways, crafting the content and structure of a lead is no different.

If someone is not intimately involved with a situation, she (in this case, Lisa) probably won’t have details about the story, and it will be difficult for an interviewer to verify information. Therefore, it may not be helpful for a neighbor, distant family member, or friend to share the story of the person affected.

Provide the people who are collecting stories with guidance on whether your organization is interested in these second- and third-hand kinds of stories.

In Training, Give Your Staff Examples That Will Yield an Easy Follow-Up for Your Organization

As you work with people who will be collecting stories, make sure that they know the details that will help make follow-up easier for your organization. Provide examples of ideal leads and the type of information that would be most helpful to you. Use the examples we’ve created on pages 3 and 4, or create your own.

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