Compelling communication? Not really!
Late in the 60’s, the laconic Irish actor, Richard Harris, who played King Arthur in the film Camelot made a hit, McCarthur Park. He had to employ an army of sopranos to sing the closing chorus because there was no way he was going to meet the notes. Ever. The lyrics are crazy.
MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
‘cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll neeeeeeeever have that recipe again. Oh nooooooooo.
It is a beautiful, melodic, and completely nonsensical song described in Wikipedia thus: ‘Although it was a commercially successful song multiple times after it was released, MacArthur Park used flowery lyrics and metaphors (most famously, lost love being likened to a cake left out in the rain) that were considered by media such as the Los Angeles Times to be ‘polarizing’ and ‘loopy.’
The composer, Jimmy Webb, said about writing the song, ‘back then I was kind of like an emotional machine. Whatever was going on inside me would bubble out from the piano onto paper’.
Just bubbling out
It’s a fitting analogy for much that passes as ‘compelling’ communication in business content today. It just sort of bubbles out. Like the cake, it’s stodgy, and a mess.
I’m hearing a lot about quite large businesses dissatisfied with their content marketing. They believe they need great writers and excellent social media people to write and disseminate it as the solution.
The problem runs much deeper.
Typically, there is no articulated purpose and there are no identified principles from which to form a rock solid foundation for their key messages. Without that, it’s virtually impossible for an organisation to source and tell meaningful and contextualised stories, so they miss out on the most powerful tool in their communication arsenal.
Why do purpose and principles matter in compelling communication?
A lived purpose breathes coherence into the culture of an organisation and sets the direction.
Principles are the marshals, ensuring there is no deviation, no hapless wandering, no lost way.
Principles are the operating framework and all the key positioning statements originate from them.
When an organisation has this solid foundation, then they are easily able to unearth contextual stories to support their key messages.
Contextual because when an organisation does the work to articulate their purpose and identify their principles, they know why they’re telling the stories, to whom, for what intention, and because the stories demonstrate their value as a service.
Because every pain point of each stakeholder is identified in the lack of these principles.
Which means you can write, talk, and tell stories with authenticity and empathy about the problems they have, and the mistakes they’re likely making.
As an example, a principle in everything I do in coaching and communication training is clarity — of purpose, principles, people, product and positioning.
MPD & MOS
Without clarity many suffer from Multiple Possibility Disorder (MPD). I can write, talk and tell endless stories about this condition and why when they are travelling in concentric circles, it impacts on their ability to move forward.
Suffering from MPD or MOS (Multiple Offer Syndrome) is debilitating. It is an affliction that creates turmoil and unrest. The cure is clarity.
The opposite of sweet green icing flowing down, bubbling-out communication.
Although, many will continue to communicate from this randomness, because clarity is confronting and hard.
With purpose and principles in place, every action and every communication builds toward achieving the purpose, from product development to partnering, speaking to telling contextualised stories.
This is a compelling communication eco-system and it results in far richer opportunity, well aligned to your business and its purpose. And far fewer soggy cakes.
* With thanks to Richard Harris and Jimmy Webb, for years of girlhood spent mooning over these lyrics to make them fit to with whatever teenage angst I was experiencing at the time. And apologies to my readers for continuing to contrive a meaning from them here. It just bubbled out!
If you want to work with me to develop compelling communication, let’s talk.
Sandy McDonald
Sandy McDonald
We think in stories
/0 Comments/in 5. Speaking training /by SandyMcStories for the Season
/0 Comments/in 2. Changing stories /by SandyMcChristmas and festive season stories
Stories for the season embody the spirit of Christmas, the festive season and New Year for the individual and collectively. What are your stories?
As a child living in Africa, we were mostly exposed to Christmas images from a glittery, snowy winter. Even though, as in Australia, it was hot it didn’t detract one bit for me from the magic of Christmas.
We had our own stories to enrich those that came from our distant northern hemisphere neighbours.
The tattered hand-typed Christmas carols books we sang from every year; the same box of musty smelling dress-ups, the often somewhat inebriated, older uncles would don to play charades on Christmas night; the silver threepenny pieces in the Christmas pudding.
This year, I watched my grand-daughter sing Jingle Bells, replacing Santa’s sleigh and reindeer with a rusty ute and kelpie. She will doubtless take this version with her into her stories of the season.
This is story at work. Conjuring up history, shoring up beliefs, adding colour to perception to cement our picture of who we and ours are.
Stories don’t always work to capture our truth. It is our choice to reckon with that.
But when they do, they are powerful allies, bench-marking who we are, where we sit, what we care about, what we do for others, what we can and wont do, why we do or don’t, and for whom.
What stories do these seasonal words conjure up for you?
Whatever they are, I hope they bring you peace and goodwill. And may the New Year shine a light on you and be all things that are good for you, yours, and our planet.
Keep collecting your stories, Sandy
PS. What’s on for the New Year in storytelling?
Call to Clarity one hour session
In the four decades I’ve been guiding entrepreneurs, business owners, professionals and academics, I’ve lost count of the people who just want to resolve an issue. They want clarity. Urgently
Sometimes there is a much bigger problem lying behind the immediate need. What they don’t need is a big coaching program, or presentation training.
In one short hour, what can I do to resolve these or similar issues?
After 43 years in the business, working across multiple communication streams, from marketing communication to online community building and web building; storytelling, speaking, and presentation training; and clarity coaching, I can work through issues pretty fast to get to the clear and logical next steps.
If you would like to invest in an hour of clarity, you can book an available time here.
Story at Work
In 2020, I will introduce my new format one day training program, Story at Work.
Story at Work will help you to communicate more compellingly to encourage your people to listen, remember, and act.
Together with pre-work, Story at Work is an intimate and interactive group workshop that’ll help you become a compelling writer and storyteller to enrich your communication and presentation skills.
REGISTER: Story at Work
Thursday 5 March 2020
8.30am – 4.30 pm
Only 12 places available.
Straightening the straitened
/0 Comments/in 2. Changing stories /by SandyMcOpportunities to straighten the straitened present themselves in the most unlikely places.
Reviewing the barricades to the grandchildren’s cubby house in our garden including a ‘paddock’ of stinging nettles, the scale of the problem felt overwhelming.
The nettles covered a magnitude of other garden sins —a topsy-turvy mixture of covered brick pathways, dumped soil, fallen tree branches and tangled vines. As a gardener, I felt stricken for having so neglected it. This was no easy solution for it, certainly not one we could prioritise.
For weeks, it sat like a dead weight in my mind. Then one dawn, without any real deliberation, I donned my gloves, picked up a saw and cut off the fallen branch that would give clearer access to the mess.
Early every morning for months, I pulled out the nettles and weeds and raked the ground flat as I went.
Metre by metre, I straightened what had been straitened. Repurposing timber and bricks, the subsequent landscaping—turf, veggie garden, and paving is, well shall we say, rustic rather than professional.
But it’s given back something of far more depth than the result.
It’s brought together a profound desire to do more work on straightening what is straitened in our business and personal lives, while contributing to doing the same for our compromised planet.
This is a far greater task than it sounds.
Do you think that Straightening the Straitened would be a good title for a book?
It would tell the stories of how people achieve the unachievable, beat the odds, take the harder decisions, develop grit, tenacity, and purpose; and as a result end up leading a fuller life, giving back more to others, while contributing toward solving the problems of our ailing planet.
If you have a story about what you’ve have worked hard on, with persistence, consistency and grit to put right in your lives, or for others, or the environment, would you consider sharing it with me? Contact me here.
Business relationships
/0 Comments/in 2. Changing stories /by SandyMcBuilding business relationships
You’ve entered a courtship with someone in business. How you communicate in these early business relationships quickly informs its development or failure.
Bombard your would be partner with sales patter and it will falter as rapidly as if you’ve made an inappropriate demand on a first date.
Business love
As in any relationship, we want to know first — how quickly will you understand and get my value? Do you have what it takes to support me? How can I trust you? We need to seek these answers long before we’re asked to leap into business relationships with a price tag?
Even in business, we want a bit of seduction, to feel special in someone else’s world. We’re seduced by confident expertise that doesn’t over-reach or grandstand.
Then when you serve so well you eliminate pain, you’ll be loved for it. When we love, we respond enthusiastically to help, advice and new knowledge and we talk about it.
Serving, not selling, is key to building business relationships.
And of course, story
And, we never tire of a good story, especially one that puts us in the picture — when we can say:
‘That’s me!; that’s where I’m at; that’s what matters to me; so that’s why that happened; that’s what I need to do.’
Science shows how such stories release oxytocin in our brains, making us feel trust and a willingness to co-operate.
Are you telling the right stories to build your business relationships? Or are you just speaking your expertise? —my world; my process; my knowledge? There’s nothing quite like an endless list of features and benefits to dampen the ardour.
Try telling purpose-driven contextualised stories, and watch how quickly the romance blooms.
If you would like to craft a little romance into your business relationships by telling stories, give me a call, I’d love to help. You can contact me here.
What makes compelling communication?
/0 Comments/in 4. Clarity Works /by SandyMcCompelling communication? Not really!
Late in the 60’s, the laconic Irish actor, Richard Harris, who played King Arthur in the film Camelot made a hit, McCarthur Park. He had to employ an army of sopranos to sing the closing chorus because there was no way he was going to meet the notes. Ever. The lyrics are crazy.
MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
‘cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll neeeeeeeever have that recipe again. Oh nooooooooo.
It is a beautiful, melodic, and completely nonsensical song described in Wikipedia thus: ‘Although it was a commercially successful song multiple times after it was released, MacArthur Park used flowery lyrics and metaphors (most famously, lost love being likened to a cake left out in the rain) that were considered by media such as the Los Angeles Times to be ‘polarizing’ and ‘loopy.’
The composer, Jimmy Webb, said about writing the song, ‘back then I was kind of like an emotional machine. Whatever was going on inside me would bubble out from the piano onto paper’.
Just bubbling out
It’s a fitting analogy for much that passes as ‘compelling’ communication in business content today. It just sort of bubbles out. Like the cake, it’s stodgy, and a mess.
I’m hearing a lot about quite large businesses dissatisfied with their content marketing. They believe they need great writers and excellent social media people to write and disseminate it as the solution.
The problem runs much deeper.
Typically, there is no articulated purpose and there are no identified principles from which to form a rock solid foundation for their key messages. Without that, it’s virtually impossible for an organisation to source and tell meaningful and contextualised stories, so they miss out on the most powerful tool in their communication arsenal.
Why do purpose and principles matter in compelling communication?
A lived purpose breathes coherence into the culture of an organisation and sets the direction.
Principles are the marshals, ensuring there is no deviation, no hapless wandering, no lost way.
Principles are the operating framework and all the key positioning statements originate from them.
When an organisation has this solid foundation, then they are easily able to unearth contextual stories to support their key messages.
Contextual because when an organisation does the work to articulate their purpose and identify their principles, they know why they’re telling the stories, to whom, for what intention, and because the stories demonstrate their value as a service.
Because every pain point of each stakeholder is identified in the lack of these principles.
Which means you can write, talk, and tell stories with authenticity and empathy about the problems they have, and the mistakes they’re likely making.
As an example, a principle in everything I do in coaching and communication training is clarity — of purpose, principles, people, product and positioning.
MPD & MOS
Without clarity many suffer from Multiple Possibility Disorder (MPD). I can write, talk and tell endless stories about this condition and why when they are travelling in concentric circles, it impacts on their ability to move forward.
Suffering from MPD or MOS (Multiple Offer Syndrome) is debilitating. It is an affliction that creates turmoil and unrest. The cure is clarity.
The opposite of sweet green icing flowing down, bubbling-out communication.
Although, many will continue to communicate from this randomness, because clarity is confronting and hard.
With purpose and principles in place, every action and every communication builds toward achieving the purpose, from product development to partnering, speaking to telling contextualised stories.
This is a compelling communication eco-system and it results in far richer opportunity, well aligned to your business and its purpose. And far fewer soggy cakes.
* With thanks to Richard Harris and Jimmy Webb, for years of girlhood spent mooning over these lyrics to make them fit to with whatever teenage angst I was experiencing at the time. And apologies to my readers for continuing to contrive a meaning from them here. It just bubbled out!
If you want to work with me to develop compelling communication, let’s talk.
Doing a TEDx talk
/0 Comments/in 5. Speaking training /by SandyMcWhat you teach yourself doing a TEDx talk
Seven years ago, a business friend and I were celebrating completing a business accelerator program and discussing what next.
She leant over the table and said, ’I challenge us to do a TEDx talk.’ I distinctly remember looking at her as if she was hallucinating.
Two years later, at the end of another business course, we were given a remarkable opportunity— to do a talk in front of Jon Yeo, the TEDx Melbourne convenor. I had a story to tell —we all do.
Recalling the challenge I wrote it, practised like mad, and, without expectation, nervously delivered it.
Just over five years ago, I stood on the TEDx stage and delivered Tell Your Story, Save a Life to a standing ovation. The experience lives large.
Jon is an exacting coach. I’m a willing student. I absorbed everything he told me about building anticipation, impacts, poise, pauses and delivering an idea worth sharing.
I’d do it differently today—but remain forever grateful for the challenge and the opportunity, to Jon, and to me —that early speaker. She taught me it was possible.
I’ve practised the craft and learned what works, what doesn’t; the power of story; what moves people; the cadence of a good talk; the minutae of language; the details of truth; the patience of endless practise until you’re so bored you can play.
Everything that’s Inside A Big Talk (a keynote, a TEDx talk, or a major presentation) I’d be delighted to share with you. Just give me a call and let’s see how I can help.
Delivering a powerful presentation
/0 Comments/in 5. Speaking training /by SandyMcHow will you fare when you are asked to do a presentation?
A young man working in a large professional services organisation was asked to do a presentation to his peers on a technical aspect of new legislation affecting superannuation.
Most of his audience would be senior in age and position. Although he was considered expert in the area, he was daunted by it.
I couldn’t pretend to comprehend the convolutions of this small but impactful change, but recognised it had consequences.
Where there are consequences there are always stories that involve a result, ramification, or repercussion.
Here’s how story works in a presentation
A wide body of scientifically validated research shows that stories release neurochemicals in our brains. One focuses attention, the other, if the story is emotionally charged and character driven will invoke trust and a willingness to co-operate. That’s how we learn.
To engage his audience’s attention and persuade them of his knowledge, he needed to tell stories.
Even the most obscure, legal minefield, houses stories. It wasn’t hard to find them. A personal story on how he had become so knowledgeable was a good start. Stories of how it had impacted a peer and a client, a logical follow up.
Telling these contextualised stories helped him to reflect his expertise in his presentation with confidence.
If you want to deliver a powerful presentation that your audience remembers, I’d love to help you. Give me a call.
When you have to do a professional presentation
/0 Comments/in 5. Speaking training /by SandyMcInside a professional presentation
A young man working in a large professional services organisation was asked to do a presentation to his peers on a technical aspect of new legislation affecting superannuation.
Most of his audience would be senior in age and position. Although he was considered expert in the area, he was daunted by it.
I couldn’t pretend to comprehend the convolutions of this small but impactful change, but recognised it had consequences.
Where there are consequences there are always stories that involve a result, ramification, or repercussion.
Here’s the thing about story in a professional presentation.
A wide body of scientifically validated research shows that stories release neurochemicals in our brains. One focuses attention, the other, if the story is emotionally charged and character driven will invoke trust and a willingness to co-operate. That’s how we learn.
To engage his audience’s attention and persuade them of his knowledge, he needed to tell stories.
Even the most obscure, legal minefield, houses stories. It wasn’t hard to find them. A personal story on how he had become so knowledgeable was a good start. Stories of how it had impacted a peer and a client, a logical follow up.
Telling these contextualised stories helped him to reflect his expertise with confidence.
When you’re next asked to do a professional presentation, and you need help extracting the stories that will change it up to a stellar presentation, let’s chat. You’ll find the experience invigorating, I promise! Download the brochure to find out more details.
SM. Inside a PowerfulPresentation PDF
Story Snippets
/0 Comments/in 3. Story at Work /by SandyMcThe ripple effect of story snippets
When I need to be out of my head, radio fills a void in the car. Time restricted story snippets, they intrigue and frustrate. Often midway into a story, I’m guessing the start while willing it to the end before the trip is over. For days, I construct what was missed.
Years ago, I caught a bit from the Science Show. Robin Williams is a commensurate storyteller. It was about a device as small as a plug that could be placed in the corner of a body of water. Whirring away to create a ripple effect, it would build the momentum to keep the water moving and free of algae.
The little device took up residence in my head. Whenever we pass such a pond, I imagine this tiny gadget sitting in the corner doing its thing. Whether it’s there or not.
Another time, part of a story about a man who made aware, was appalled at how angry his words were when he spoke to himself. He said, ‘I’d never talk like that to anyone else’. Now, I sometimes catch my voice and am transfixed by it. Have I been that disparaging all my life?
The ripple effects of story snippets can have the same impact on us as a lengthy tale, such is the power of narrative working in conjunction with our imagination. They can’t be discounted as a means to make a difference.
Story snippets are the micro stories we can tell when we present, talk or share our expertise. If you want to know how to use them wisely and to engage, enhance and enliven your communication, let’s have a chat.
Why stories work to impact on the quality of your working relationships
/0 Comments/in 3. Story at Work /by SandyMcStories work. They work to impact on the quality of your working relationships, but why does that humanize the workplace?
That’s a big question but worthy of a little consideration.
First, story is proven to be the means of communication we’ve always used to create a sense of belonging. And we humans need to feel we belong. Today more than ever in the workplace.
Many studies show why this is the case. The research makes it clear that when we hear and listen to contextualized stories—in other words, they’re relevant to you— our brains release neuro chemicals that focus our attention, make us feel a sense of trust and a willingness to co-operate.
On it’s own, that’s enough to explain why stories work to humanize our workplaces. They engage and connect. They make us feel we belong.
Second, we’re often in a situation at work, and for work, in which we need to communicate well for others to grasp complexity. Or shift a narrative to place a team on the same page. Or motivate action.
We don’t always use the right communication approach to achieve this. As a leader, here are few examples:
As a business owner trying to communicate your offer:
What story does when it is contextualized —on purpose, to the right people for the right intention, and demonstrating value that serves—is eliminate these communication problems.
Story doesn’t coerce, it persuades; it doesn’t exclude because it’s inclusive. When its focus is you it can’t be dismissive.
It doesn’t grand-stand, it’s more often vulnerable, empathetic and insightful. Story doesn’t showcase, but demonstrates your capability, competency and authenticity when you tell it in context.
A good story told for the right reasons is clear, succinct and relevant.
Third, story embeds. We talk purpose and business culture but few know how to embed it as part of an organization’s DNA. Stories do that job. That’s why they’re so powerful to support invested interest, (not always for the right reasons), religion (also not always for the right reasons), but also in our own personal culture.
If we were able to tell stories about our purpose with the same passion and verve as are told about our favorite sporting team, imagine how that narrative would embed a culture!
Please come and join us. We’d love to see you. You can book in the links below. On Thursday July 25 at General Assembly and on Monday 5 August at Docklands. We look forward to your company at Why Stories Work to Humanise the workplace and the ensuring conversation.