Articles on Success, Significance and the Evolving Role of Work

The Power of Deep & Simple in a Shallow, Complex World

You can learn so much by listening.

I spend a lot of time pretending to read or write so I can listen to what people talk about.

My intentions are honorable. I want to uncover people’s deep struggles, so I can find or create things that build them up. And, as a corporate marketing professional, I want my organization to reach out to the people we serve as human beings, not as targets to be sold.

I spend a lot of time eavesdropping online too. Most of my social media time is spent scanning feeds of conversations and updates. Listening to what people are really trying to say.

I’m struck by how lonely, scared and time-starved we are.

By lonely, I mean disconnected. We feel cut off from people or things we wish to be a part of. We feel left out.

By scared, I mean risk-averse. We deeply want to succeed, but aren’t willing to fail trying. So we gravitate to “proven solutions” and how-to content.

And by time-starved, I mean busy. We spend significantly more time each day working in our busyness than on our business.

All this adds up to markets and media channels overflowing with content that is shallow and complex. It’s why content shock is setting in. It’s why you’re finding it so hard to get anyone to pay attention to and care about what you have to offer.

So what does this have to do with you and storytelling in your business?

The alternative to shallow and complex is deep and simple.

If you can cut through the clutter in my life with a simple story that digs deep, you will instantly distinguish yourself from just about every competing distraction “out there” in the marketplace.

I struggle with feeling left out — passed by. My fears are holding me back from taking bigger risks. And I have a number of projects lingering — projects that are important to me — because I can’t find the time to get to them.

I don’t need facts, figures and features. I don’t need guarantees. I don’t need how-to content or three easy steps that tell me what I already know.

I need deep thinking that touches me. That connects with me. That challenges me. That invites me in and breathes new life into me.

I will give you my email address for that. I will buy your stuff. And I will attend your events.

But to get me to join you, you’ll have to get to know me. Really know me.

Which begins with you listening to the story I tell myself and others.

Then you can knock and enter through that door.

I’ll be waiting for you.

(ht Mister Rogers)

When You’re Struggling to Get the Word Out About What You Do

Every story is a narrative. It has a beginning and end. It is a narrative with characters, conflict and closure.

Not every narrative is a story. A narrative is an open-ended sequence of experiences and events.

Understanding the Difference Between Narratives & Stories

There was a boy named Mohan, born in Porbander, India. He studied law and ultimately became the iconic leader of India’s independence movement. You know him as Gandhi.

If I were to lay out his life as a narrative, it would be a story, because there is a beginning, a core character, conflict and an ending.

Saturday, I went to the grocery store and bought everything on my list. I got items for breakfast, lunch and dinner that should last my family through Thursday.

That is a narrative, not a story. There’s no conflict. No core character you can connect with. Just a sequence of what I did Saturday.

See the difference?

But there’s a much more profound difference. Narratives aren’t limited to descriptions of boring activities. They can capture movements.

Equality and liberty are powerful narratives.

Gandhi’s is a story along the narratives of non-violent resistance and equality. And his story influenced Martin Luther King Jr., whose life became another powerful story in the equality narrative.

Stories are moments in time. Narratives are movements over time.

Narratives are like rivers. And stories are like people and villages along the river.

When it comes to getting the word out about something, you have to make sure you are on the right river. And the story or stories you take with you must be in harmony with that river.

How Narratives & Stories Impact You

Those you serve tell themselves stories. Stories about who they are, what they want and why. Stories about why the world is the way it is. And these stories are nourished by broader narratives. Just like villages are sustained by a river.

Your job isn’t to manufacture stories in an effort to move or manipulate them. That’s an industrial age mindset — an age that is passing.

Your job is to understand the stories they tell themselves. And you must understand the narratives feeding those stories.

Once you know their stories, your job is to deeply connect with the narratives the people you serve hold dear. In other words, your job is to give to (rather than take from) them. Build them up. Improve their lives. Help them get their jobs done.

If you’re struggling to “get the word out” about something, it’s quite possible that the story you’re telling isn’t aligned with a narrative that deeply connects with and sustains the people you want to serve.

Which offers you two options.

Find bigger, better stories. Or travel a new river.

A Quick Exercise to Help You Re-Design Your Business Narrative

4209836904_b2c1de1779_z — “The Bullhorn Poet” by Lau on Flickr.

Go to most company websites and here’s what you get:

Here’s who we are
Here’s what we do
Here’s why you should do business with us

If I were to go to your home page right now, what would I get? Does it tell me all about you? Or does it tell me all about me? Would I learn more about myself through your insights?

Take a moment and answer these questions:

What injustice or obstacle does your company address?
List ways this injustice or obstacle has been addressed by others and why their approaches have been inadequate.
How is your company addressing this injustice or obstacle in a new way?
Why are you so sure your way is better than those other ways?
Together, how can you and I address this injustice or obstacle?

Spend time with these questions. Write down your answers. Tweak them.

While your competitors waste precious time talking about who they are and what they do, you can offer those you serve a narrative that reads like this:

There is an injustice (or obstacle) out there that impacts you.
Others have tried to address this injustice by…
But these efforts have had minimal impact — here’s why.
We believe the way to address this injustice is…
By working together, we can finally bring justice (or success or security or freedom or whatever) to you and others like you.
Let’s take the first step right now.

This is rough and abstract, but can you feel the difference in these two approaches to your narrative?

Can you see how you can quickly stand out from others’ blather in the market?

If you want to go deeper or have questions specific to your business, leave a comment or email me.

20 Shifts That Will Transform Your Business & Life

Here are 20 shifts you can make that will propel your organization’s culture, brand and storytelling:

From an organizational orientation to a client orientation
From playing the hero to playing the helper
From focusing on features, benefits & solutions to focusing on specific jobs customers need done
From testimonials to tales
From transactional to transcendent content
From telling to teaching
From treating prospects as recipients to embracing them as participants
From interruption spam to permission marketing
From mass to me (i.e. personal)
From promoting to promising
From organizational siloes to systems
From expression to connection
From a need to be popular to a need to be profitable
From causal to effectual leadership
From static to dynamic communications
From being a competitive commodity to a creative monopoly
From sharing data to revealing drama
From organizational time to real-time
From treating prospective clients as targets to treating them as unique human beings
From linear to nonlinear storytelling

What Simultaneously Excites & Terrifies You?

Imagine yourself in an auditorium knowing that in one minute, you will walk to the podium and be expected to inspire 2,000 attendees.

How would you feel in that moment?

Or what if you were about to invest $100,000 of your life savings in a company you believed has a 65 percent chance of bringing you a multiple of ten?

When you feel both excited and scared — when your heart is pounding and your breath is short — that’s when you’re about to do something important.

Take note of those moments.

If ever the fear or excitement is missing, then the importance is most likely missing too.

I’ve been spending a lot of time scribbling on graph paper and white boards pushing myself to identify projects that simultaneously excite and terrify me.

I encourage you to do the same.