Tamsen WebsterFounder & Chief Learning Officer, Message Design Institute · I study what novel ideas require to make aha moments possible | Researcher, author, and professional sensegiver for people whose work changes minds

Beyond Storytelling: Revolutionizing Behavior Change #disruptivethinking

20 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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This content was created by Tamsen Webster. This content was uploaded by Tamsen Webster. This is a YouTube video titled "Beyond Storytelling: Revolutionizing Behavior Change #disruptivethinking" (posted 2026-01-20). The excerpt is from a single-speaker presentation (labeled SPEAKER A) about behavior change and the limits of using storytelling alone. The speaker invokes Kurt Lewin’s idea that behavior is a function of person and environment, contrasts external story (what happens) with internal narrative (left to inference), and cautions that relying on inference is problematic in contemporary contexts.

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But when it comes to change, and particularly behavior change, it can help to expand our view a little bit beyond just the storytelling circles. And for this, I'm gonna go to the work of Kurt Lewin, who famously said that behavior, human behavior, is a function of the person and the environment. Now, how does this relate to story? Because story essentially tells the external version of events. It's showing you what happens. It's showing you it from the outside. And we're leaving a lot, though not all of it, of the internal story up for inference. And inference in this day and age is not really a good thing to count on.