Today, cut through the corporate crap, unearth your best stories – and get people to listen to them – just by channelling your inner journalist.
About to sell an idea in the boardroom?
Bring a new product to the market?
Motivate your teams to think in a different way?
Taking a few tips on story-getting and story-telling will give you a better shot.
How do you find the best bits about your business? These nuggets don’t arrive on a silver (or gold) platter. Sniffing them out takes time and discipline. Think: people. How do you get your teams to report to you about the positive, unusual things that have happened that day? Like with any story rod, you have to bait the hook before you go fishing. Prime them up. We’re interested in learning more about this: if that happens let me know; whenever you see this, tell me. Build in incentives. Then you discover patterns, trends and learn fantastic new facts about the brand and the people who work for it. AKA ‘news’.
The best headlines, so journalists say, are the ones you can shout to a granny out of a car window and she’ll understand exactly what you mean. In plain language using as few words as possible. That is always your goal, no matter what your story is. A golden rule is to cut the fat on whatever you’re saying down by 20%. You’ve just finished writing a report? A deck? You’re happy with it? Now chop it by a fifth and it will be even better. Use simpler ways to deliver boring news. If there’s an increase in uptake by 92%, then sales have almost doubled. Find new ways to describe old situations. Think about what could stick in someone’s brain and use it as a lantern through all that soul-destroying jargon.
Now you know your story, try it out. Find someone who matches your audience, tell them or show them what you’re trying to achieve and how you’re going about it. Imagine it’s a social media campaign launching a new product. Ask a customer or potential customer the following questions: Do you understand this, what do you like most/least; would you engage with it yourself; what would make you engage with it more. Then take the feedback and improve your campaign.
It took a while to get the engine running, but your idea’s over the line, people are engaged. It’s time to evaluate – or just take a holiday. NO! A journalist doesn’t sit back after breaking a big story. They go at it again – build momentum into it. You keep tickling people while their engagement levels are high; while they still give a damn. This is the moment to bend and stretch, instil and embed. But build your 50-day momentum plan based on the average-to-worse-case scenario, not the best. Assume pick up will be lacklustre. Do this and every step of your plan will be strong in its own right and you’re either building on a good start or turning a bad start into a good finish.
And now you can have your holiday.