LCN Public Narrative workshop 2025

We are excited to announce Leading Change Network’s annual Public Narrative workshop. Over a weekend in July, you can join our global network of organizers to tell your personal story, articulate your calling, and build authentic relationships with others on a foundation of shared values. It’s a unique opportunity to inspire action and advance your leadership journey. 

 Two-day public Narrative workshop!

Together, we will create – or re-create – the shared purpose of your community, and learn how to invite people to act on what matters most with urgency & agency. We will meet the challenge of apathy and disconnectedness with a new sense of purpose, community, and action through a key leadership practice: Public Narrative. More than a workshop, Public Narrative is an experience. You and your team will see yourselves and each other in deeper ways, and walk away with critical skills for building a brighter future and creating deep relationships.

Based on the work of Marshall Ganz at Harvard University, Public Narrative is the first of the five key practices of the People, Power, Change organizing framework: story, relationship, structure, strategy, and action. 

You will learn the four public narrative elements, which are: 

1. Story of Self: ​​You learn to tell a “story of self” to enable others to “get you” – to enable them to experience the values that call you to serve the cause you serve and to have accepted responsibility to lead. You will get to reflect on: What moments shaped my values? When did I choose to act? What challenges revealed what I care about?
2. Story of Us: You learn to tell a “story of us” to enable your community to “get each other”- to experience the values they share that can inspire them to act together, find courage in each other, and find hope in their solidarity. You will get to reflect on what connects your community? What meaningful experiences or values do we share? What are the moments in which we faced challenges together? 
3. Story of Now:  You will learn to tell a “Story of Now” that describes an urgent choice faced by the “us” whom you hope to mobilize to act: a challenging vision of what will happen if people do not act, a hopeful vision of what could be if people do act, and a call to commit to the action required. In this way, a story of now bridges the story – why we should act – with strategy – how we can act effectively. You will get to reflect on: What urgent challenge do we (your community) face? What’s at risk if we don’t act? What hope can we realize if we do? What’s a strategic call to action we can take together?
4. Narrative linking: You’ll learn to tell a 5-min complete Public Narrative that links the Story of Self, the Story of Us, and the Story of Now into a powerful call to leadership and action. We share a Story of Self to reveal the values that call us to lead, tell a Story of Us to evoke the shared values that unite our community, and offer a Story of Now to make clear the urgent choice we face together. Together, these stories connect the heart (why we care), the head (why we are called together), and the hands (what we must do now). Crafting and linking these stories turns personal experience into a public resource for inspiring action, building solidarity, and moving from hope to commitment.

Want to see examples of what previous participants crafted as their Public Narrative? Watch the two videos below to experience how powerful a well-told story can be.

Whether you’re a civic association, union, advocacy group, social movement, nonprofit/NGO executive, activist, or grassroots community campaign, this comprehensive Public Narrative workshop is designed for your team! You will learn how to use Public Narrative to inspire action. This can be a valuable skill if you’re regularly leading meetings, recruiting volunteers, mobilizing people to action, advocating for change, influencing public policy, navigating leadership challenges within your campaign team, or building a stronger organizational culture. Public Narrative isa powerful tool to connect, communicate, motivate, and move people to act.

This is an intensive hands-on practice with limited seats! Participants are guided by a skilled Public Narrative coach in small breakout rooms during the workshop to get real-time feedback on their practice and deep coaching questions to help strengthen their story even further. You’ll leave the workshop with a full draft of a personalized public narrative that you can continue to build on for your next leadership action. Did we mention, it’s also FUN?!

This workshop will take place virtually on Zoom.

• Dates: This workshop will be held on Saturday July 26 and Sunday July 27, 2025, from 9am – 3pm ET on both days. 
• Deadline to apply is July 11th, 2025
• Commitment: You must be present for the full duration of the workshop, with minimal distractions.

To join, please register your interest here and we will get back to you with the payment link to reserve your seat

Fees for this workshop are offered at subsidized rates. There are 3 fee options:

• I can contribute the standard seat tuition cost of $500
• I would like to apply for a scholarship and pay $300
• We are submitting a team application (5-6 participants) for $2000 

Please specify your preference in the application. The subsidized seats available are limited and highly competitive. Priority will be given to LCN’s member organizations in underserved regions.

Tanvi Girotra works as an advisor, trainer and coach to social impact organizations and mission-oriented leaders across the globe. Prior to learning Public Narrative and Organizing at the Harvard Kennedy School and joining Marshall’s teaching teams, Tanvi founded Becoming I Foundation – a young people’s movement focused on getting young people connected with community development and activism in India. She is the Vice Chair, Board of Directors of Fora – a center of excellence for young women’s leadership and was the National Advisor for GirlTrek – America’s largest health movement for black women. She is the Chair of the Board of Haiyya – one of India’s foremost capacity building organizations for young, feminist and anti-cast organizers. 

Tanvi has served as an International Fellow for the Global Fund for Children and was awarded the William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service in India through which she helped build programs targeted at women and children in high risk communities. Tanvi has been awarded the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award, the Karamveer Puraskar for Justice and Citizen Action and her work has been recognized at the UN where she has been awarded for ‘Contribution to Humanitarian Development’. She has been invited to speak at the World Economic Forum at Davos, UN ECOSOC, UN WOMEN at the EU Development Days, the Clinton Global Initiative and at various TEDx conferences, alongside heads of state, social and business leaders.

Tanvi holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University where she frequently returns to teach and coach various student programs and fellowships on value-based leadership and storytelling. She calls New York and New Delhi home

For any questions, feel free to reach out to Leading Change Academy Coordinator Salma Sameh at salma.sameh@leadingchangenetwork.org