Heard Any Good Stories Lately?

Greetings. I have a story to tell you. Early one evening many years ago, I returned to the Kansas City Star newsroom after covering a bizarre, ritualistic cattle-slaying incident in northwest rural Missouri. I had a notebook full of great quotes from the county DA and many others, and a photo of one very nervous principal dealing with nasty rumors flying around his high school.

My editor was holding front-page space for the story, and he wanted it now if not sooner. It was a busy news day so he told me to hold it to a modest 10 inches. “But,” I protested, “I don’t have time to keep it short.”

“Too bad,” he said with a shrug and turned away without a backward glance.

Somehow I distilled a compact story that left no questions unanswered from all those notes, but it was a struggle. It would have been much less stressful to let it run and use up all the juicy quotes, adding detail about the small town, its inhabitants and the way those cows had been eviscerated.

Therein lies a lesson central to the business communications training I offer to government agencies, nonprofits and private companies: It’s much easier to let it roll.

I trust you’ll agree that the lesson is clear: Brevity in writing is no easy matter, in good part because it demands that we make decisions about tight organization and about what to write and what to leave out. But like so many other pursuits, doing the job right requires effort. In a newspaper full of articles, I probably got more readers to stick with the cattle-slaying story by keeping it short, particularly since it didn’t “jump” to an inside page.

Now, what if I had started this newsletter issue by, instead of citing the above anecdote, stating that brevity is often a handmaiden of clarity and that you shouldn’t be long-winded, particularly in the world of workplace communications -- written or presented? Your attention may have wandered, or not even been fixed in the first place, if my experience reading other newsletters is any indication. But with the newspaper tale, many of you wanted to know why I was writing about dairy cows with their guts hanging out, and how it ended for me. In other words, I had your attention.

My point is that adults learn by hearing or reading stories. At the very heart of effective communication are “ideas and details.” Tell a relevant story, connect it to your idea, and back it up with details. That goes for the main theme or message of your report or email (the Pentagon has come up with BLUF, or “bottom line up front,” a rare concession to clarity at Fort Futility), as well as the several sub-topics that back up and elaborate on that main point.

So tell a story. Here’s another one: I grew up in a churchgoing family, and noticed early on that Jesus offered many a parable, while Paul -- in the numerous epistles that followed the four gospels -- preached what amounted to platitudes. The point of Jesus’ stories was never in doubt, and I can cite many of them to this day. What about Paul? Well, I’m sure his tenets were crucial to the founding of Christianity, but all I remember, with good reason, is this quote from his first letter to Timothy: “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine oft infirmities.”

When it comes to presentations, where you want spontaneity in a conversational setting, I’ve often witnessed one good story lead to another as audience members chime in. By contrast, ask yourself: How many times have you seen seemingly endless PowerPoint bullet points lead to anything but glassy-eyed stares and glances at wrist watches?

Enjoy your summer.

Dave

Rebirth of a Blog

Back and forth I’ve gone on all this “social media” business, and I’m a long way from making up my mind. Somehow the notion of “tweeting” hasn’t quite penetrated my thinking when it comes to serious and productive marketing. But I am reintroducing my blog. Why I let it slip I don’t know, but I do recall that it made for relaxed and stimulating conversation. Please join me at http://www.businesscommunications.wordpress.com, and react by sounding off on anything touching on business communications, presentation skills and writing skills, and all their promise and pitfalls. I'll continue to share what I know about the news media and how you can gain from press encounters, as well as writing and public speaking for success.