A few of us, frustrated with the lack of an overarching story at Greenpeace, set out to articulate one. Our rogue project ended up sketching the outlines not only of a story, but of a theory of change and a set of compass points for organisational transformation. Attribution: Story Team, Greenpeace International

1. VERSION 10.0
RE-IMAGINING GREENPEACE "
AS AN EPIC GLOBAL STORY
April 2015
by Tommy Crawford, Brian Fitzgerald,
Amrekha Sharma, Lucy Taylor, "
Iris Maertens, and Nicoline Huizinga

2. VERSION 10.0
Welcome to the Story Deck!

3. VERSION 10.0
The Three Commandments of Great Storytelling:
1. Tell the Truth"
2. Be Interesting"
3. Live the Truth"

4. VERSION 10.0
Surprised?
Many people think of stories as fiction, but the greatest stories -- whether made up from imagination or anchored
in real experience -- are the ones that reveal profound truth. Martin Luther King told a story of climbing a
mountain and looking out across the promised land. The power of that story wasn’t the part about the mountain
that he made up, it was the truth his listeners heard in it: about the hard and bloody struggle that made them
want to turn back, of a long, exhausting journey that was like climbing a mountain, and the compelling nature of
the dream of what awaited on the other side that kept them going.
Martin Luther King was telling a big story that explained the world.
"
When you inspire people to believe in that kind of story so fully that they adjust their lives to it, become
characters in it, see themselves as its protagonist, you can no longer stand apart from your tale. You have to live
the values it champions.
At Greenpeace, we’ve been telling a big story that explains the world for many years now, though we’ve not
always consciously articulated it, nor actively promoted it, nor consistently lived the values it implies.

5. VERSION 10.0
This Story Deck aims to answer 6 questions:
1. What is Storytelling?
2. Why is Storytelling of interest to us?
3. Why is Storytelling of interest to us, NOW?
4. What is our vision of a better world?
5. How do we bring the vision to life?
6. What is the Greenpeace Story?
The story we tell the world has consequences for how we develop, select, and evaluate our projects and for how
we behave as an organisation and individually. Some of the changes implied by the story we tell are explored in a
document called the “Seven Shifts”: which charts the directions the organisation needs to head in if we are to
deeply ‘live’ our Story and make the shift to becoming a truly people-powered agent of transformational change.

6. VERSION 10.0
Global Engagement through storytelling
The Greenpeace Story team consists of Tommy Crawford, Brian
Fitzgerald, and Amrekha Sharma, with the help of Lucy Taylor of
eatbigfish.
The objectives of the project are:
1. Articulate the overarching story that Greenpeace tells through all
its work."
2. Enable all Greenpeacers to see themselves as part of the story,
and effectively tell their piece of it.
3. Provide tools and content that help us “live” out our story and
values, and inspire millions of others to do the same."
4. Infect our campaign work, tapping into broader, societal
narratives that provide people with meaning and that drive
behaviour change."
5. Ensure that the story and the thinking behind it helps drive the
organisation’s strategic thinking and output, enabling an outside-
in, audience-centric approach at all levels of the organisation.

7. VERSION 10.0
The background of this document
The story you find in this deck has been developed across a span of 18 months in a process which had input
from the Executive Directors, Senior leadership at Greenpeace Internatioanal, the Global Campaign Leaders,
campaigners, communicators, fundraisers, actions units, volunteers, and ships crew. Special thanks goes to the
offices where we stress-tested early drafts: Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace Brazil, and Greenpeace East Asia. They
helped turn this into a truly global story.
"
This work began when Jonah Sachs introduced us to his ideas about story as theory of change and the concept
of modern mythology which he introduced in his book, Winning the Story Wars. We highly recommend it.
"
Are we sitting comfortably?
"
Then let us begin...

8. VERSION 10.0
What is Storytelling?

9. VERSION 10.0
Stories are cultural DNA"
Humans have always shared stories to remind each other of who we are, how we should behave, and to teach lessons
in group and individual survival.

10. VERSION 10.0
Stories provide meaning"
Every culture has a Story of the People to give meaning to the world. Part conscious and part unconscious,
it consists of a matrix of agreements, narratives, and symbols that tell us why we are here,
where we are headed, what is important, and even what is real.

11. VERSION 10.0
We live vicariously through stories
Stories can excite and affect us on both a conscious and an unconscious level. Often we will relate to characters in
the stories we read or watch -- sometimes almost becoming them for a short while. This can have a profound impact
on us, as we use stories to try and learn what might happen to us if we took a similar path or made similar choices as
the protagonist in the unfolding story of our lives. Stories tell us how to overcome obstacles -- evolution has hard-
wired us to pay attention to them, because they’ve helped us to survive as individuals, as tribes, and, with luck, as a
species.

12. VERSION 10.0
Taking Stories to the Next Level
Greenpeace is no newcomer to the power of story. Our history is brimming with tales of amazing feats of bravery
and imagination. We know how to tell a David and Goliath story, how to paint the line between good and evil, how
to cast ourselves as the underdog, the champion of nature, the voice of the voiceless."
"
But there’s another level at which story operates: the level of “Myth”, and it is at this level that storytelling
becomes not merely a means of capturing attention for our messages, but a theory of change."

13. VERSION 10.0
Taking Stories to the Next Level
Humans are storytelling creatures. We understand the world and ourselves through a complex matrix of evolving
stories -- many of which we share with others to form a collective “reality”. The stories which make up our day-
to-day reality can be so powerful that we can forget that they are just stories."
"
The days of the week, for example, are simply stories. “Wednesday” doesn’t exist in nature. Monkeys are not
happy on “Friday” because the weekend is coming, and Giraffes are not more sanguine on a “Monday” morning. "
"
Yet those stories shape our individual and collective behaviour and expectations. "
"
They colour our entire perception of the world. They shape our beliefs about what is possible."
And they hold the key to our collective future."

14. VERSION 10.0
Why is storytelling of interest to us?

15. VERSION 10.0
Change the Story, Change the World
Right now, many of the collective stories that people are using to make sense of the world are not "
conducive to creating a brighter future for humankind nor for our beautiful planet."
"
These dominant cultural “myths” often misdirect our attention and intention away from important matters,
promote fear-based thinking, apathy and indifference, and work to maintain the status quo by presenting
alternatives (and alternative thinkers) as either hopeless, misguided or downright dangerous."
"
Changing those stories amounts to changing humanity’s operating system, the most basic level of code which
determines who we are and how we act."
"
Changing these stories will determine whether the conditions exist in which meaningful, transformational and
systemic change can occur. "
"
Changing these stories will determine whether we win or lose in the battle for our planet."
VERSION 5.0

16. VERSION 10.0
"
"
Stories help us make sense of the world. "
They limit or enlarge our sense of possibility."

17. VERSION 10.0
A culture’s most important stories are known as myths. Myths combine:
EXPLANATION (how the world works)
MEANING (how we see ourselves as a result)
STORY (they are set not in the literal world of facts but in the more emotional world of symbols)
RITUAL (ways for the listener to live the story)
In all societies myths combine the above elements. Stories that don’t deliver these elements come and
go. Stories that get this formula right last for millennia and shape our world.
}

18. VERSION 10.0
The American Dream is an example of a once-functional myth:
EXPLANATION: Opportunity for success and prosperity is open to immigrants and Americans alike
MEANING: If you work hard you too will be rewarded: from rags to riches!
STORY: America was clawed from the tyranny of British class and privilege and formed into an exceptional nation
by people who believed in liberty, merit and self discipline
RITUAL: Millions of people working hard and making sacrifices today for the dream of a better tomorrow.

19. VERSION 10.0
The American Dream equates liberty with economic opportunity for anyone willing to work hard. It not only shaped people’s
expectations, it was the inspiration for art, literature and popular culture in the U.S. and abroad. For some it was so
compelling that they packed up their lives and sailed to New York. It shaped peoples choices about what to do, who to
marry, and how to behave. It fueled the US economy for decades.
However, after the economic crisis in 2008 and the government bailout of the “too big to fail” financial institutions, the story
of the “American Dream” was looking evidentially untrue. It helped fewer and fewer people make sense of the world. The
rituals it had spawned began to break down — the openness to immigrants, the trajectory of employees from mail room to
head office, the rewards for hard work and endeavor. All those things evaporated for many, while big bonuses were still
handed out to a privileged few. The American Dream no longer explained America. A “Myth Gap” had appeared.

20. VERSION 10.0
When Occupy Wall Street staged its protest in Zuccotti park, a new story explaining how the US economy worked was
drawn into the vacuum created by the collapse of the American Dream: practically overnight, the story of the “99% and the
1%” was sucked into the Zeitgeist. It reflected people’s actual experience of the US economy: it may not have been a better
story, but it explained the way things worked. It was believable. A new myth was replacing the old.

21. VERSION 10.0
What kind of world do we live in today?
If we look at the world through the lens of today’s most powerful stories, what does it look like? What are the
conditions these stories create that hold back change? If we were to describe the dystopia that needs fixing, how
would we describe it?

22. VERSION 10.0
A world of Division
We think in divisions: in nationalities confined by borders, businesses separated by competition, classes separated
by income, cultures separated by beliefs. We are taught to anchor our hopes in the triumph of one division over
another.

23. VERSION 10.0
A world of Separation
Many of our stories encourage us to see ourselves as separate from others, and from the world around us."
The logic of separation traps us in a paradox. The world can change only if billions of people make different choices
in their lives, but individually, none of these choices seems powerful enough to make a difference.

24. VERSION 10.0
A world of Misdirection
Where we are bombarded with messages designed to keep our attention focused on the superficial, and our
intensions focused on pursuits of material wealth, visible success, and power over others – hypnotized by the
illusion that that these things can bring us happiness."

25. VERSION 10.0
The control mythologies tell us war is normal, "
greed is good, "
And the destruction of tomorrow "
is an unfortunate, unavoidable by-product "
of the pleasure of today.

26. VERSION 10.0
"
These stories are so pervasive, "
so all-encompassing, that they appear not stories, "
but reality itself."
Stories maintained and enhanced (often unconsciously) by those
benefitting from the status quo, particularly those looking to
amass and horde power."

27. VERSION 10.0
What kind of stories create that reality?
We’ve pulled together a sample of some of the big, unhelpful myths that are holding back a brighter
future. This is not exhaustive: every project and every region will have its own “myth neighbourhood”
of stories that explain the world in ways that need to be challenged. Knowing what those stories are
can help us better understand how to win.
Similarly, no project or region is going to address all these myths: we can select by audience,
geography or issue the most relevant ones which we’ll actively work to replace. For the others, we
need only ensure we don’t reinforce them.

28. VERSION 10.0
It ain’t me, Babe
It’s not my problem. I can’t do anything about it.
Someone else* has to fix it.
*The government, a charismatic leader, Big Business, the scientists, the engineers, God, Greenpeace, that guy over there…

29. VERSION 10.0
Economic Growth = Progress
Bombing people, interest-rate apartheid, and ecological decimation
are all acceptable, as long as the economy keeps growing.

30. VERSION 10.0
Money makes the world go round
Everyone, and everything, has its price. The value of natural
resources, human happiness and fulfilment, future security, and a
clean environment are without meaning unless they can be
expressed in monetary terms.

31. VERSION 10.0
Shut up and shop
Happiness is a commodity. You can buy the answer to any problem.
OK, maybe that last product didn’t make you happier, more
beautiful, more popular, or deliver on improving your life the way it
was advertised it would. But the next one will.

32. VERSION 10.0
It’ll grow back
Nature is a resource to be extracted, plundered, and conquered. "
The Earth is too big for human beings to harm.

33. VERSION 10.0
Technology will save us
Technology can solve any problem humanity creates. "
We can replace whatever we exhaust and "
fix whatever we damage, without changing our way of life.

34. VERSION 10.0
All of these stories require common "
elements to survive:
• Apathy & cynicism
• Disconnection: from each other, from ourselves,
our communities, from place (planet) "
and from time (short term thinking)
• A failure of imagination

35. VERSION 10.0
So what are the antidotes to the power "
of these stories?
• Hope
• Connection
• Creativity

36. VERSION 10.0
Why NOW?

37. VERSION 10.0
"
Disruption is change’s best friend, and "
we’re in the midst of major disruption."
"
What if we could find the gaps where old stories are failing,
and consciously build new, better stories to take their place?"
"
What if we could hack the operating system of the world?

38. VERSION 10.0
We live in a world of dead mythologies, created for a bygone era, that are ready to fall. There
is a void that science, religion and an increasingly vacuous consumer-culture are failing to fill,
leaving people seeking purpose and meaning. The good news is that we have purpose and
meaning; by the bucket-load….

39. VERSION 10.0
The battle for hearts and minds is raging. Energy companies, banks, governments and
brands are already shaping the stories that people use to understand the world. Not only is
there a great opportunity here to introduce a better story to explain the world, there is a big
opportunity cost from not adding a bolder, better one.

40. VERSION 10.0
The context in which we operate is shifting. Doing what we’ve always done is no longer
standing still, it’s going backwards. The good news is we’ve been able to reinvent ourselves
over and over: we’re good at change.

41. VERSION 10.0
And all around us, gaps in the old stories "
are widening, there are glimmers of hope,
pockets of resistance and "
transformational changes under way

42. VERSION 10.0
Interconnectivity
We are in the midst of an unprecedented revolution in the scope, depth, and richness of global
communications. As the web and mobile communications become faster, more intelligent, and
more ubiquitous, it increasingly ties us together in a single communications system not unlike
a planetary nervous system, capable of sensing and responding. It enables coordinated
actions by large numbers of people. This capability enables new ideas and actions to spread
at the speed of light, and accelerates the process of change.

43. VERSION 10.0
Gate keepers were once a "
powerful force in maintaining the status-quo "
"
But gate keepers can no longer keep out the
change makers

44. VERSION 10.0
Artists can find audiences without agents or record labels. Music and art that once might have
been suppressed as “subversive” or too controversial can find a global audience through
pocket-to-pocket marketing, binding distributed global communities more tightly together.

45. VERSION 10.0
Twitter is terrifying tyranny. When repressive forces are under threat, switching off the internet
is often first in their power-maintenance plan. When Gezi park was besieged by defenders of
Istanbul’s last green space, state television news censored any mention and ran a
documentary on penguins in prime time. But the protestors live-streamed their cause across
every digital media to the world, and adopted the penguin as a symbol of the government’s
inability to contain their message.

46. VERSION 10.0
Hackers are disrupting power. Crowds are building what they need and sharing what they
want through open source development platforms. The deepest government secrets are
intercepted and shared. Corporate claims of ownership over everything from basic human
needs like food and water to our entertainment to politicians to the internet are meeting
resistance.

47. VERSION 10.0
More connections are creating more empathy. We now live in the most complex, urbanised
societies our species has ever known. Our increasing closeness to each other has put us in
touch with those who are different to us. It’s enhancing our understanding of other cultures
and communities, raising compassion for their struggles. Despite bloody and widely reported
conflicts, there is evidence that we are living in the most peaceful time in human history.

48. VERSION 10.0
The Collaborative Commons is "
redistributing power

49. VERSION 10.0
The sharing economy is disrupting
traditional industries, and in some cases
the very heart of consumerism. Services
like AirBnB and Lyft monetize existing
infrastructure in ways that can be more
efficient.
Intellectual properties released under
Creative Commons licenses allow
collaboration to have value in
competition with ownership.
Self-interest is learning to take second
place to the power and interests of the
social commons – a powerful concept for
a more sustainable world.

50. VERSION 10.0
The fundamental systems at the core of
our economies are evolving.
Historically, when an energy revolution
(now distributed) meets a
communications revolution (Web 3.0),
this means transformation for human
civilisation, as seen in the past, when the
rise of the printing press and steam
power coalesced. We’re living this right
now.
The world is reaching a tipping point in
terms of energy and a full transition away
from fossil-fuels is a matter of “when,”
not “if.”

51. VERSION 10.0
The “impact economy” has grown rapidly over the past decade as entrepreneurs, investors
and non-profit sector leaders began developing more socially and environmentally conscious
and responsible business models, legal structures and investment vehicles.
The Triple Bottom Line (People,
Planet and Profit) is changing the
dominant narrative about value,
away from ‘profit at any cost’, to
a more holistic approach to
creating value for people and
planet, too. We’re seeing this
clearly in the proliferation of new
concepts, like the social
enterprise, and the B corporation.

52. VERSION 10.0
Digital Technology is putting the telling of
these new stories on STEROIDS

53. VERSION 10.0
Storytelling is returning to its
roots in the oral tradition,
thanks in large part to
technology.
Around the campfires of our
primitive ancestors, a story
only survived if it was good
enough or useful enough to
be retold.

54. VERSION 10.0
That changed when the
Broadcast era put storytelling
in the hands of those with the
money to buy hours of TV,
radio, and print ads: whether
their story was good or not, it
could get a captive audience
- because money was the
gatekeeper to mass
communication.

55. VERSION 10.0
The internet has democratised publication:
today we tell our stories around the electronic
campfires of YouTube, Weibo, Twitter and
Facebook.
We have returned to an era where it is the
merit of the idea, not the depths of your
pocket, that determine whether a story
spreads or not.
And thanks to digital tools, those that are
worthy can traverse the globe in
the blink of an eye.

56. VERSION 10.0
We are seeing disruption in the systems "
that have governed our lives and the
myths they've operated under like never
before."
"
There has never been a better time for a
better story than right now.

57. VERSION 10.0
“One can not change an existing system; "
one must create a new system that makes the
old system obsolete” "
"
— BUCKMINSTER FULLER

58. VERSION 10.0
To inspire people into action, we need to set out a "
vision of the world we are looking to co-create.
Our experience of trialing several draft visions with national
and regional offices during the story stress-test convinced
us of two things, however.
1. We’re much clearer about the world we DON’T want than
the one we do.
2. No single vision of a better world is going to be
universally accepted.

59. VERSION 10.0
We propose that we co-create that vision, "
with our supporters and volunteers, with thought leaders,
staff and crew, through a crowd-sourced process."
"
Which elements of this vision we emphasize will vary from
culture to culture, region to region, and project to project: we
can and should create a set of vision elements that will
resonate with the audiences we want to reach.

60. VERSION 10.0
The better story we might want to "
tell may be about a world where…

61. VERSION 10.0
We share more

62. VERSION 10.0
We create more

63. VERSION 10.0
We are what we contribute

64. VERSION 10.0
Nature is our
model, measure,
and mentor.

65. VERSION 10.0
Or it may be entirely different. We can continue to "
drive change with a generic vision of a “Green and Peaceful”
planet, but our case is stronger if we can paint our vision in
detail.
Co-creating this vision could be an inspiring, global task for
our supporters. Articulating it as a positively-framed agenda
for change could be a galvanizing task for ourselves.

66. VERSION 10.0

67. VERSION 10.0
How do we bring a better world to life?"

68. VERSION 10.0
The power of a story grows exponentially as
more and more people accept it as their truth

69. VERSION 10.0
“Only when people in large numbers started to
believe that change was possible, did change
become possible” "
"
– KUMI NAIDOO, ON APARTHEID"

70. VERSION 10.0
Our stories need to be retold to audiences we
can’t reach, by audiences we CAN reach

71. VERSION 10.0
Prospectors
Outer Directed (OD): Unmet need for
success, esteem of others then self
esteem. Acquire and display
symbols of success.
Inner Directed (ID): Unmet need to connect
actions with values, explore ideas, experiment.
Networking, ethics, social innovation
We think about audiences in terms of their Motivational Values, what Maslow
described as their “unmet needs.” There are 3 Maslow Groups
Sustenance Driven (SD): Unmet
need for safety, security, identity,
belonging. Keep things small,
local, avoid risk

72. VERSION 10.0
Prospectors
These 3 Maslow Groups can
break down into "
6 Values Modes
Roots
Concerned
Ethical
ETHICAL
COMPLEXITY
ETHICAL
CLARITY
SAFETY
BELONGING
ESTEEM OF
OTHERS
SELF ESTEEM
The Sustenance Driven
The Outer Directed
The Inner Directed

73. VERSION 10.0
Change Makers & Culture
Shapers
While the proportions in each group vary
from country to country, the vast
majority of the people who currently
support Greenpeace (and the majority of
us who work for the organisation) are
from the Inner Directed Maslow Group,
namely Transcenders (the “social
innovators”), followed by Now People
(the “culture shapers”).

74. VERSION 10.0
To change the stories in
mainstream culture, we need to
enhance our understanding and
engagement of those “culture
shapers”, the willing adopters of
new ideas, who hack those ideas
and make them more attractive or
“normal” to the rest of society.
This is a key social role of “Now
People”, a Values Mode of the
Outer Directed group, who, "
along with the Transcenders "
are the influencers who shape "
culture by bringing new "
ideas into society.

75. VERSION 10.0
These are the dominant
Motivational Values that underlie
the Values Modes. We tend to
frame most of our
communications to reflect the
Values of the Inner Directed like
Justice and Nature.
In order to engage the Now
People, the culture shapers, we
need to also engage using Values
like Creativity, Self Direction and
Novelty – those the
Transcenders,or social change
innovators, also engage with."

76. VERSION 10.0
How Ideas Get Trapped
The trap to avoid is speaking strictly
within the Values frame of the Inner
Directed group.
It may be an important idea, it may be
absolutely the right thing to do: that’s
all these people may need to be
convinced.
But that’s insufficient reason on its
own to get a Now Person to pay
attention, much less to emulate, adapt
and spread it out into the mainstream.
This is why we need to engage with
some of their Motivational Values too.

77. VERSION 10.0
We don’t want Greenpeace to become
mainstream. We want "
our ideas "
to become mainstream.

78. VERSION 10.0
Seen another way, we are primarily seeking
to engage the Innovators and Early Adopters
- the leaders and the first followers - who
help turn great ideas into inevitable
conclusions.

79. VERSION 10.0
It’s called culture hacking. Just as we can apply the “Mind
Bomb” concept to specific political or policy goals, we can
detonate Cultural Mind Bombs as well. "
"
And we do that with a powerful overarching story about how
to change the world.

80. VERSION 10.0
What is the Greenpeace Story?

81. VERSION 10.0
The story Greenpeace tells, and has always told,
is that a better world is possible, "
and brave individual and collective actions "
can make it a reality

82. VERSION 10.0
This was the story we told when the Phyllis Cormack sailed out to stop
nuclear weapons testing in Amchitka, or when we’ve galvanized a network
of activists to win important victories against Arctic oil drilling. It’s a story
that’s proven true when we’ve collectively stopped radioactive waste
dumping, put an end to oil rigs being thrown away at sea, turned Antarctica
into a land of peace and science, off limits to exploitation.
Our job, every day, is to make that story come true again and again.
And to challenge the forces that tell us it’s not a true story, and that we can’t
change the world.

83. VERSION 10.0
Every Greenpeace campaign &"
every Greenpeace action can be "
boiled down to this, "
the moral of our organisational story:

84. VERSION 10.0
A billion acts of courage can spark a brighter tomorrow

85. VERSION 10.0
The moral of a story is the thing you tell at the end which makes sense of
the story, and which explains the way the world should work.
People from around the world joined together to declare Antarctica a
world park: a billion acts of courage can spark a better tomorrow. Nestle
bowed to people power and agreed to stop buying palm oil from
destroyers of the rainforest: a billion acts of courage can spark a better
tomorrow.
We don’t need to say it literally every five minutes: it’s not a tag line, but it
should be a conclusion anyone can draw from any of our campaigns.

86. VERSION 10.0
Only by understanding the moral of our
organisational story can we create coherence
across all of our global campaigns

87. VERSION 10.0
"
Only by understanding the moral of our
organisational story can we choose campaigns
and projects that enable us to deliver a coherent
and compelling vision

88. VERSION 10.0
A Universal Story Arc
There’s a standard hero’s tale which every culture, every language, every country shares – a hero
sets out from a broken land, meets someone who gives them a powerful gift or wise advice. With it,
the hero slays the monster, overcomes the obstacle, or conquers the enemy and delivers a brighter
future. It’s the arc of stories as diverse as Harry Potter and the Bhagavad Gita. This form is hard-
wired into our brain because it served an evolutionary role: we learned from others how to
overcome obstacles by projecting ourselves and our obstacles into the story: “Let me tell you how I
outwitted a bear. Listen to how your grandmother kept the fire going all winter…” Stories like
these shape our behaviour and our definition of what’s possible.

89. VERSION 10.0
The Greenpeace Story Arc

90. VERSION 10.0
People Power is the Hero of our story

91. VERSION 10.0
The gift we give is courage

92. VERSION 10.0
The monsters we slay say change is impossible

93. VERSION 10.0
In our story, we help people find their courage. We may gift it directly by example, or
provide the conditions for it to be found by providing hope, connection to others, or
by sparking their creativity.
Courage is what enables the hero to go on, and to win. In Jack and the Beanstalk, the
gift is the magic beans. In Star Wars, Obi Wan’s gift is a light sabre, Yoda’s is the
secret of the force. In Harry Potter, Dumbledore’s wisdom aids Harry, Hermione, and
Ron. The role we play is a hero among heroes – we enable warriors, but we’re
warriors ourselves. We expand our heroes’ sense of what’s possible. The thing we
inspire, the thing we teach, the gift we share is courage.
The monsters we fight are numerous – but they all resist change in the same way,
and they all tell the same stories that constrain people’s sense of what’s possible.
The monster of our story may be Monsanto, it may be the Indian Government, it may
be consumerism, or the 1%. But the dialogue always boils down to the following:

94. VERSION 10.0
We say:
• We can change the way we feed and fuel our world
• We can live within Earth’s limits
• Nature can be our mentor & our model
• We can redirect human ingenuity away from short term, destructive
technologies and practices to the challenge of building a better future
• We can find harmony despite our differences
• We can build a fairer, more sustainable world

95. VERSION 10.0
The Monster says:
• Change? That’s impossible
• It’s too expensive
• It’s naïve
• It’s impractical
• It’s being proposed by people who aren’t like us
• People who are anti-progress. Anti-jobs. Anti-science. Anti-everything
• People who hate our country
• People out to overthrow our traditions & way of life

96. VERSION 10.0
The stories told by entrenched powers are designed to convince
us that a better world isn’t possible. That we’re small and
powerless. That action is futile. That we should simply shut up,
and continue to seek the meaning and purpose we crave along
the dead-end avenues those same powers built.
The stories that hold us back may be told by governments,
corporations, or individuals. They’ll be different from country to
country and from project to project.
But all will be dedicated to keeping transformative change at bay,
maintaining the status quo, and keeping people docile. Which is
where courage comes in…

97. VERSION 10.0
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues,
because without courage you cannot practice any
other virtue with consistency”"
"
— MAYA ANGELOU

98. VERSION 10.0
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but "
the form of every virtue at the testing point” "
"
— C.S. LEWIS

99. VERSION 10.0
Courage is Personal
Life begins at the edge of our comfort zones – and
everyone’s comfort zone is different.
All acts of courage will be context dependent, and
deeply personal.

100. VERSION 10.0
Courage is Stronger Connected
Some acts of courage may feel like a drop in the ocean,
yet what is an ocean but a collection of drops? "
"
By acting together, we can multiply our impact and add
up to something greater than the sum of our parts."
Connection also enables courage: we will do things
together or as a team that we would not do alone.

101. VERSION 10.0
Courage is Powerful
Big or small, individual or collective, all acts of courage
have value and hold inside them the power to inspire
strangers and friends alike. "
"
Who’s to know which act of courage will set off the
ripples, that transform into waves, that gather together
into a mighty tsunami of change? "
"
We will recognise and appreciate the inherent value in
all acts, even if we cannot understand it right now."
"

102. VERSION 10.0
Courage is Contagious
Our acts of courage, and those of others help us reshape
and redefine our sense of self. "
"
They allow for even greater acts of courage in the future
as the edge of our own personal comfort zone expands
with each new action we take. "
"
Contagious acts of courage can magnify, catalyse and
combine in unpredictable and magnificent ways, having
the power to propel us at rocket speed toward a new
world so beautiful we can barely dare to imagine. "

103. VERSION 10.0
Courage redefines people’s sense of what’s possible
Apartheid: Only when people
in large numbers came to
believe change was possible
did change become possible.

104. VERSION 10.0
The Five Keys to Courage
1. Purpose (A bigger story that gives people reason to
believe their actions matter)
2. Role Models (Examples of courageous heroes –
succeeding and failing)
3. Social Proof (A community to connect to online and
through events)
4. Skills (Practical tools to help build the courage
muscle)
5. Trigger (Specific calls to courageous action)

105. VERSION 10.0
Our aim is to become the organisation that "
people the world over associate with "
the universal value of courage

106. VERSION 10.0
To become Champions of the Impossible: "
heroes who inspire heroes, "
who expand the boundaries "
of what people believe can be achieved

107. VERSION 10.0
Inspire""
We will lead by example with our
own courageous acts: adding real
value to the broader movement by
doing those things that no one else
can, breaking new ground, and
pushing the boundaries of what is
acceptable or even possible.

108. VERSION 10.0
Enable
We will debunk the myth that courage is for the lucky few and we will provide
specific tools, events and relationships that give people a deeper belief in their
ability to step outside their comfort zones. "
"
We will share our skills, such as non-violent direct action and strategic
thinking; and provide meaningful ways for people to take action as part of our
campaigns, leveraging their unique skills and encouraging them to dream big. "

109. VERSION 10.0
Catalyse""
We will embrace a symphony of visions,
catalyse collaboration between unlikely
partners, and encourage the exploration of
new ideas and possibilities, helping to
redirect our unlimited ingenuity as humans
toward the creation of a better world."

110. VERSION 10.0
Amplify""
Every time people experience something that doesn’t fit with an old story, it
weakens it, disrupts it, and makes space for something new. "
"
We’ll lend our reputation, name and energy to amplify and celebrate stories of
contagious courage from our own network and beyond; from our local
environment to the other side of the world, knowing that these stories have the
power to inspire hope, courage and action."

111. VERSION 10.0
A kaleidoscope of stories."
"
This is our story of a Billion Acts of Courage."
"
A story designed to compete with the multitude of myths
and stories already out there."
"
Sometimes it will be told directly. Sometimes it will be
told via our campaigns. Sometimes it will be told by
people we don’t even know."
"

112. VERSION 10.0
One story, told a billion times, in a billion different
ways, by a billion different audiences, across a billion
different mediums."
"
The core, the essence, the moral, will stay the same.
How we tell it will vary. We can be seductive. We can be
compelling. We can dare to believe in impossible
things."
"
This is a new chapter in our unfolding Greenpeace
story, one we can write together. "
"
"

113. VERSION 10.0
What remains constant are the values we espouse, the role we
play, and the moral our stories reinforce:
“A billions acts of courage will
spark a brighter tomorrow”

114. VERSION 10.0
What will your act of courage be?

115. VERSION 10.0
Developed by a pirate band of communicators at Greenpeace:
Tommy Crawford @TheEcoWarrior
Brian Fitzgerald @Brianfit
Amrekha Sharma @Amrekha
Iris Maertens @Irisistablyme
With inspiration and big ideas from Jonah Sachs, Drew Beam, Lucy
Taylor, and their colleagues at Free Range Graphics and eatbigfish,
Smoke-jumping from Mike Townsley and support from Nicoline
Huizinga @NicolineHuizinga