Abstract for:Models and Stories: Getting people to act on insights

Getting people to act on the insights coming out of good work in System Dynamics is a well-recognized difficulty. Different people have had differing levels of success employing strategies that include benchmarking and engaging people in the model development process. Generally, the approaches used attempt to improve communication and commitment with the expectation that intellectual engagement will result in action. Storytellers, on the other hand, seek to engage people emotionally to carry the audience along. By taking some of the lessons of storytelling, and recognizing how similar the discovery process of modeling is to a good story, we have the potential to engage people emotionally. This work in progress explores the beginnings of what doing that might entail.