Botschaft Archive - The Art of Communicating

Us, together

So many businesses miss out on an opportunity to create a deeper connection with their customers on their “about us” page.

They take “us” to mean “themselves”. The business.

While this isn’t exactly wrong, it excludes the customers.

A much deeper connection is possible when “us” includes the customer.

What about “us, the business” is it that clicks with the customer? What is it that makes the customer identify with the business to think that they are “like us”.

What’s the common ground? The point of identification? What makes this combination of business and customer the perfect match?

Ultimately, this expands “us” to mean “us, together”.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t speak about yourself. But what you do say you say purposefully to resonate with your customer.

It’s your story that they read, but it’s also a profound feeling of “like us” that they sense.

A great example is Patagonia. On their “Business, unusual” page they speak about themselves, their values and their journey. But in every single word their customers see themselves; you can easily see them thinking “just like us”.

That’s a profound connection that has the potential to create an incredible amount of loyalty.

PS: Reach out if you want that, too.

Finding the right words matters so much

Great storytelling fuels influence.
Which is good, bad, and ugly … some thoughts on how to deal with bullshitters:

If you manage to tell a story that resonates well with many people, you can make a huge impact.

The good is that this power is available to everyone.

The bad is that “everyone” includes the bullshitters.

The ugly is that bullshitters often wield storytelling as a tool to manipulate or mislead, rather than to enlighten or entertain. They shamelessly ignore the truth. It’s just not a concept that matters to them.

The only question that matters to a bullshitter is:
Does the story work to their advantage?
When it works it’s just fine. True or not.

Now, this is important to understand: They are not exactly lying. In order to lie, they would need to care for the truth. Which they don’t. They are simply not interested in the truth. They are only interested in achieving their goals.

Here’s where people get it wrong: They assume that bullshitters would be similar to themselves. That deep inside even a bullshitter would care for the truth. That they just need to be convinced of the facts.

But that’s not how bullshitters roll.

They don’t care about the truth.
Therefore, they don’t care about facts.
Therefore, they can’t be convinced by facts, no matter how hard you try.

Bullshitters care about whether it works. Nothing else matters to them. Again: They couldn’t care less about whether they are right or wrong.

If a story resonates, they will tell it.
If a made-up story resonates better,
they will switch to that story.

You shouldn’t treat them as similar to you. They are not. Unlike yourself, they have no sympathy for the truth.

The only thing that can make make them stop what they’re doing is when their story stops working.

And that, essentially, means that you need to tell better stories.

You need to find a way to tell the truth in a way that resonates stronger than the bullshitter’s made-up story.

That, I think, is the only way.

And it’s why – in times like ours – finding the right words matters so much.

Telling stories is something that bullshitters really excel at. You need to become better at it.

For example …
 … when bullshitters are extraordinarily good at making their audience feel heard, you need to become even better at understanding people’s struggles and desires.

… when bullshitters promise the blue from the skies, you need to become even better at finding words that resonate strongly but that are grounded in the truth.

In other words, we need to shift our focus away from trying to convince the bullshitter (which is never going to work) and onto the people we want to resonate with.

The more empathy we have for them, the better our stories can become.

The better our stories become, the better they can spread.

The better they spread, the bigger their impact.

That flavor of impact starts with empathy, honesty, and the will to find the right words.

If you care for the truth and want it to have impact, you need to care for finding true stories that resonate strongly.

What’s your strategy of dealing with bullshit?

An excellent tool

PowerPoint is an excellent tool to turn great ideas into confusing presentations.

Sure, it can be used to turn a great story into a great presentation. But mostly it does the opposite.

We’ve all seen it happen a little too often.

In PowerPoint, it’s easy to prioritize fluff over substance,
and cram slides with detail just because the space is there.

It’s easy to focus on aesthetics – fonts, colors, images, animations – while neglecting the foundational work of crafting a compelling, relevant story.

PowerPoint as a tool doesn’t particularly care for clarity or relevance, nor does it encourage that.

Essentially, PowerPoint is about filling slides, not telling stories.

It helps to keep that in mind when using the tool. The more we allow it to pull our attention away from the story we want to tell and direct it to filling slides, the more we risk wasting time on creating flashy but empty presentations.

Audiences don’t care nearly as much about fancy slides as you might think; they crave clear and engaging stories. If that’s with a beautifully designed slide … great, we’ll take it.

But if it’s fancy slides with a lame story, we’ll pass. (Let alone ugly slides!)

Don’t let PowerPoint lead your process. Start with clarity, understand your audience, and build your story first. Then, use PowerPoint to amplify your message in ways that words alone can’t.

That’s how you transform a well-thought-out narrative into a powerful presentation.

Resist the urge to start with slides.

Start with the story.

The megaphone

You’re handed a megaphone. You can say whatever you want.
What do you choose to say?

Everyone around you will hear it.
But that, of course, is no guarantee that they will listen.

The only thing that’s certain is that they will hear it.

What do you think will make them listen? 
What do you think will make them pause?
What will make them come closer?
Or pass your message along?

This, essentially, is public speaking.
Only that you’re handed a microphone in place of a megaphone.

What do you choose to say?

Seeing it

One of the most powerful questions to ask in order to speak with clarity is “Can you see it?”.

Because when you can see it, it means that you can describe what you see.

And when you describe it, this gives me a chance to see it, too.

If we stop our thinking short of seeing, this is what might happen: We speak about our ideas, “thinking” they are clear, only to discover that the words we use are not really clear to others.

(And, if we’re being totally honest, sometimes not even to ourselves.)

For example:

Innovative? How does that look like? What do you see?
Empowerment? How does that look like? What do you see?
Friendly service? How doest that look like? What do you see?
Open feedback culture? How does that look like? What do you see?

The truth is that people see different things when they hear these words. Being specific about what you see, helps to align their vision with yours.

The magic happens when “what you see” and “what I see” merge to form a “we see”.

Which allows the conversation to focus on the questions that matter to make happen what “we see”.

So, can you make me see what you see?

Alignment vs. Agreement

Alignment is when we walk the same path.
Agreement is when we walk the same path for the same reason.

A lot of frustration in communication stems from trying to achieve agreement when alignment would be sufficient.

Let’s say you care for sustainability and you suggest some initiatives to save energy and emissions.

How important is it that the CFO agrees with you about the why behind those initiatives? Would it be a show stopper if they see a financial benefit but don’t agree with you on the deeper purpose of (this particular approach to) saving the planet?

I’ve seen brilliant ideas die in ideological battles around the why when the destination was all that actually mattered.

Once you’re on the way, you might discover that there is, in fact, a lot more common ground than you thought. Alignment might turn into agreement down the road.

But if you’re not even willing to start the journey unless there’s agreement, alignment might not happen in the first place. And, as a consequence, change can’t happen.

How about you? Did you – or someone on your team – ever let agreement get in the way of alignment?

Can’t stop thinking about it

If you can manage to plant one thought in my head that I can’t stop thinking about, you’ve achieved more than most other talks.

Don’t even bother with planting a dozen thoughts until you can manage to plant that one thought in my head.

When it works and I really can’t stop thinking about it, it’s hard to believe that I wouldn’t want to know the second thought. And the third.

What’s a thought that you would like to plant in my head?

Of course

The most compelling “aha moments” create an “of course effect”.

It’s that sudden realization or enlightenment you experience once you see a solution or idea that seems incredibly obvious in hindsight.

It feels like a blend of surprise and certainty.
A sense of simplicity and inevitability.

“Why haven’t I thought of that? It’s so obvious!”

To create one for your audience, the insight itself is not enough. You need clarity in your communication, too.

Can you lead your audience to that moment of realization where everything suddenly clicks into place and they experience the of-course effect?

The sound of aha

Did you ever notice how aha moments often come in silence?

Now, when a speaker is bombarding their audience with info, never giving them even a second to reflect, how is the aha supposed to happen?

How will you set up your next talk for an aha moment?

Success

How do you measure the success of your talk?

There were standing ovations?

There were no questions?
There were many questions?

Your boss liked it?
Your colleagues liked it?
Sam liked it?

You came through without a glitch?

You closed a deal?

A crowd gathered around you in the coffee break?

Someone praised you?
Someone got angry?

No-one pulled their smartphone out of their pocket?
Someone used their smartphone to take a photo of one of your slides?
Someone posted a photo of a slide on LinkedIn?

A year later, someone bumped into you recalling your core message?

You got an email from someone thanking you for how you changed their life?

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What’s your measure for success?
How did your last talk measure up?

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