#6 Supercharge Your Storytelling
The key ingredient every story needs, how comms contributed to the collapse of SVB and why desk sharing led to trouble at Google.
Welcome back to my Communicator’s Notebook.
I’m Rachel and I’ve been a professional communicator for nearly thirty years. I’m also an author and love teaching storycraft.
Communication is a vital skill in business - and everyday life - yet we are rarely taught it.
This notebook is for anyone wanting to learn a bit more about what goes into creating communications that work.
The moment it all changed
Today I’m sharing one of the most important pieces of craft advice I ever received.
A nugget so revolutionary it transformed the way I write …
Every story must have a moment of change.
I know for that kind of build-up you might have been expecting something more.
But believe me, it’s a game changer.
Placing careful emphasis and focus on change – what it is, why it has happened, and what impact it has had – can help you to elevate good stories into great ones.
Why stories matter
Audiences don’t remember facts and figures, they remember stories.
This is because stories are hardwired into human brains.
Anthropologists believe that at the end of a long day hunting, our ancient ancestors would spend a significant amount of time sharing stories. Individuals who were good at storytelling would be elevated socially, becoming leaders of the tribe.
What’s more, our brains physically connect when we tell stories; the same parts light up in both the story-teller and the listener, building trust.
Stories are so important to humans they have played a significant role in the development of our species.
As Yuval Noah Harari in his book, Sapiens, explains: “Telling effective stories is not easy. Yet when it succeeds, it gives Sapiens immense power, because it enables millions of strangers to cooperate and work towards a common goal.”
We tell stories all the time.
You only have to think of family get-togethers and the sharing of well-worn childhood memories, or the anecdotes which flow when you meet up with former workmates - remembering that narcissistic boss, or that brilliant project you worked on together - to understand how strongly stories feature in social cohesion.
“Stories are the glue that binds us together in families and groups,” says Harari.
So let me talk you through how I use the moment of change to really lift and energise my storytelling.
The Corporate Narrative
First for leaders and communicators.
Over the last few years there’s been a rising clamour for corporate narratives (which is just a fancy word for story).
The original idea was a good one.
If you can tell the story of your company, division or product you make it more memorable. Afterall, one of the quickest and arguably only way to connect your message to your audiences is through story.
However …
Many of the narratives I’ve seen in my professional life are not stories at all, but merely a set of key messages dressed up on posh slides.
Indeed, for a piece of writing to even be considered a story, it must contain within it a moment of change, a shift in understanding, a realisation, an action, an event, an alteration, a transformation.
To write a true narrative you need to work out what that moment of change is.
Is it a customer problem that needed to be solved? Perhaps a market opportunity waiting to be seized? An internal issue to be fixed? Changing consumer demand? Whatever prompted the shift, it needs to be identified and put at the centre of your story for the format to work.
Only once you are conscious of the moment of change, can you start building the narrative. Then your key messages can be assembled as proof points in the overall narrative arc, in which something, or someone, is transformed.
The News Story
Corporate communicators, leaders, writers often have to break news – or deal with breaking news.
Here again, I ask you to focus on what has changed? What is new?
Indeed, the very definition of a news story is that something new has occurred – otherwise why would you be telling people?
Focusing on what is new helps to narrow down the information you want to convey. If there are multiple ‘new’ things, it’s important to decide what is the biggest, newest or most impactful. In other words, can you boil your announcement down to one sentence?
It might be you’ve struck a new deal, launched a new initiative, it might be a new product or service, or a people story about a colleague who has experienced change or growth, or perhaps they have effected change within the organisation?
Whatever it is, a laser-like focus on change will make your news story much clearer.
Fiction
This is equally true in fiction. Every single scene, short story, chapter, indeed your whole damn novel must contain a moment of change.
I’m what’s fondly known in the writing business as a ‘demon plotter.’ Before I start writing a book, I will have the story mapped out into a series of sequences.
These sequences are then divided into scenes.
When sitting down to write a new scene, the first thing I do is make a note at the top of the page describing the moment of change. This reminds me where I need to focus, what I’m building to, and how my characters will react.
Obviously you don’t have to be as prescriptive as me.
But when you are writing - even in full free flow - it’s helpful to think about the moment of change.
In the edit make sure you are spending enough time on that moment, that you’ve found the right words, the correct tempo, that you’re telling your reader what they need to know about your characters’ reaction - both spoken and unspoken.
Doing so will build tension and conflict, helping to move the story on.
Now, when I talk about change, I’m not always talking about big bangs.
Change can come in many forms. There’s internal change such as a slight emotional shift, a rising annoyance, a dawning realisation, a resolution, a memory, a blushing moment of shame.
Change can also be external; a new setting, a journey, a chair being knocked over or, here you can have your big bang and detonate a bomb.
There are no laws on timing either.
Change can come in the opening paragraph, hooking your reader in - somewhere in the middle leaving ample time to explore the impact - or at the end of the scene, leaving a juicy, page-turning cliff-hanger.
All that matters is that it must be there.
Once you become aware of pinpointing the moment of change, there’s no going back.
The question will loom large every time you sit down to write - and I guarantee that asking it will make the blank page less formidable and your storytelling sharper and more engaging.
Thought Provokers
Well, that’s it on change for now. In future editions, I’ll come back to storytelling as there’s a lot to explore.
In the meantime, here’s a roundup of some interesting things I’ve read in the last few weeks.
First up, Lulu Cheng Meservey, EVP Corporate Affairs and CCO at Activision Blizzard, arguing that the collapse of SVB "was largely driven by a communication collapse."
Interested in more on SVB? There’s also Axios on “Silicon Valley Bank's fatal communications flaw” and “How a press release doomed Silicon Valley Bank” from Fast Company.
Then there’s Sophie Walker’s heartfelt and utterly eviscerating thread on International Women’s Day – too late for this year - but do bookmark this post for March 2024 and show it to anyone who thinks pinkifying, posing or performative feminism gets your organisation off the hook when it comes to equality.
Here’s an interesting article on how Google’s internal comms went awry due to the hoary old question of desk sharing (a Maslow hierarchy of needs issue if ever there was one). It contains a useful reminder that dressing bad news up as good seldom works; “… memes started showing up in the internal Memegen system criticizing the messaging from leadership. One popular meme said, “Not every cost-cutting measure needs to be word mangled into sounding good for employees.”
I also saved this Tweet from former No 10 Director of Communications, Alastair Campbell pithily commenting on the BBC’s recent public crisis. “Base decisions on principles [,] on arguments which can be won.” Sound advice, especially when you are in the maelstrom and know you will need to defend your decision over the longterm.
Senior marketeer Matt Lerner’s startling admission that he wasted $1million on building personas which don’t work spoke to me, as I’ve always been sceptical of the approach. Handily Matt spells out what to do instead.
And finally, love or loathe the brand, I thought the new MacDonald’s Ad was brilliant (directed by Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). No dialogue, not a hamburger in sight, the golden arches mimicked by the rise of eyebrows, plenty of red and gold colour references, turning the shame of sloping off for a fast-food lunch into a cost-of-living celebration and heavy on storytelling. I’d love to know what you think about this, or indeed anything else in this edition of my notebook.
If you’ve enjoyed The Communicator’s Notebook it would mean the world if you could share it with your network, on LinkedIn or elsewhere.
And if you’ve got this far and haven’t subscribed, you can do so here.
Until next time,
Rachel
About me: I’m Rachel, the writer of this newsletter. I’ve worked in communications for over a quarter of a century and am a board-level adviser and content creator. I’m also an author and teach communication skills. You can read more about me or contact me about freelance work here.
Really enjoyed this Rachel. So useful to see your list of the subtler moments of change. I also hadn't read that sharp-as-hell Sophie Walker piece, god I love her - thanks for recommending. Can't wait for #7!