Narrative Framework is Odd Duck’s primary method and offering.

A cross between concept branding, messaging, and change management, the Narrative Framework, transitions internal and external stakeholders alike to be on message and story-aligned brand champions.

Odd Duck will help collect, craft, shape, and share your story. Through a series of workshops, interviews, exercises, and in-depth conversations, we will help uncover your disruptive story, the identity that shapes it, the audience who needs to hear it, and the most effective way to express it for maximum impact.

Story makes your content more exciting, more memorable, and more sharable.

We specialize in narrative-driven content that crystalizes your message, amplifies your reach, and focuses your impact.

We advance your disruptive, paradigm-shifting, population health or mental wellness innovation through short films, podcasts, publications, comics, workbooks, interactive platforms, and curricula.

Odd Duck specializes in solution-packed, character-centered, narrative-driven content. Here are some recent highlights:

• A mindfulness toolkit that teaches teens to cultivate a practice;
• A collection of stories on community-based public health innovations adapting initiatives in the early days of the pandemic;
• An interactive comic book series introducing anxiety-management tools to teens;
• A DIY street-level campaign that promoted health guidelines during the pandemic for distrustful, highly skeptical communities

Contact us to help you develop narrative-driven content.

The Art & Science of Disruptive Storytelling

Change is hard—even positive change.

This is true whether you’re a finance department trying to get the programs to adopt a shared accounting platform or an international global health initiative rethinking worldwide systems of care.

Storytelling offers a 45,500 year-old solution that is still relevant today regardless of your change challenge.

Based on our Narrative Framework Method, this 2-day course will dive into the history, science, and art of storytelling. We draw on neuroscience, literature, behavioral economics, cognitive psychology, anthropology, and more. We’ll share ten steps for narrative change-making and together craft a disruptive story.

This training is for innovators, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, thought-leaders, and changemakers looking to shake up the status quo. 

•  If you are a single-issue collective, let’s talk about tailoring the training specifically to your industry.

• Got a mix of innovators tackling sticky problems across a range of sectors? Maybe our Disruptive Story Clinic (listed below) is better for you.

• Have an organizational or programmatic team going through a significant change? Check out our Narrative Framework. We’ll customize the training for you as a kick-off to a deeper dive into your change project.

 Recommended for groups under 20 participants.

Beyond Dashboards & Infographics: Disruptive Storytelling with Data

This is a paradoxical time. Science is considered suspect, yet we have greater access to more information than ever in human history. Can story help our audiences bridge the gap between irrational skepticism and info-overwhelm with data? When should data serve the story, and when should it drive?

Based on work with data scientists across the country, Odd Duck offers a 1-day training on combining effective storytelling and meaningful data, drawing on examples from community health, homelessness prevention, public safety, housing, chronic health issue management, and more. This training looks at when to let data tell story and when it should serve it.

Our training promotes a team approach mixing story and data designed for data geeks, policy wonks, and communicators who still use their fingers for basic math. We recommend combining this with our Art & Science of Disruptive Storytelling workshop. 

• If you want to combine this with some tactical practice in developing infographics or analysis, we offer an expanded training that goes deeper on implementation.

• Got a project in mind and a team to drive it, but need some direction? Try our Disruptive Story Clinic (below) to workshop a strategy.
  

Recommended for project teams of three or more members representing data/evaluation, communication/development, and programs. No more than six teams total should participate at one time.

Disruptive Story Clinics

Odd Duck offers intensive workshops designed to apply the nuts-&-bolts of storytelling in a hands-on application in real-time. Participants present a program issue they want to work on throughout a 2.5-day session. We use our Disruptive Story Mapping process to define your strategy, identify your audience, and craft a story to address the problem at hand.

And, you leave with a map of how to implement a story-based solution.

Coaching

Odd Duck provides one-on-one coaching to your leadership or communication team. Starting with a 90-minute kick-off session to define your strategy and dive into the work, followed by a monthly three-, six-, or twelve-month commitment of hour-long sessions. We will provide everything you need to get TED-ready, prepped for your gala event, or set for a media appearance.

We coach speakers from page to stage. From Executive Directors, scientists, academics, and thought leaders to communications, frontline staff, or program participants with lived experience. We have prepped speakers for TED, SXSW, Innovation Fest, conferences, events, and galas. We also practice a trauma-informed approach for storytellers sharing lived experience that is triggering and sensitive.

Keynotes & Speeches

Josh Gryniewicz, Odd Duck Founder/ Chief Narrative Strategist, writer, and essayist, speaks on a range of storytelling and story-related topics. His disruptive presentations will help you rethink what is possible using narrative. Josh has spoken on:

• Why Story Matters for a World in Crisis
• Information as Public Health
• Narrative as an Organizational Change Agent