For the love of a good story
It’s easy to spot a bad story. Rambling. Hard to follow. Unclear. Or the timing is just bad. On the flip side, we see the power of good storytelling every day. Stories are how we understand the world. Through stories we can learn, inspire, warn, enlighten, connect and motivate. They’re an effective tool that communicators can use to welcome the public to the wonderful world of government. Fables and newsletters alike have the potential to explain how things work and provide context to what we encounter in our daily lives. Taking inspiration from some of our favorite idioms, this blog is an ode to the storyteller in us all, as well as a list of things to remember when crafting your agency’s story.
“Beauty is in the eye of the holder.” – Margaret Wolfe Hungerford
Everyone is different, and they respond differently to stories. It’s our job to meet people where they are, provide context, and welcome everyone into the local government process. This often means tailoring your communication to who you are talking to and what you need to accomplish. To do this, you need to know your community, their preferences, barriers to engaging with you, and what they already understand about your story. To do this, you need research.
“Slow and steady wins the race.” – Aesop
We believe in the power of research, but it’s easy to skip over it or undervalue findings when you’re in a hurry. Take your time to get messaging right and remember that crafting well-written stories is not a race. It’s also important to bring your community along with you, so they can understand your world more fully. After all, appreciation can only come from understanding.
"If you assume, you make an ass out of you and me." – Oscar Wilde*
Assumptions aren’t good for anyone, so do not assume or presume to know what people think, feel or believe about your agency. Do your research, be authentic and hold true to your agency’s mission, vision and values. That can help focus your story on what really matters and remind you to focus on the bigger picture. If you need to talk about a new program, explain it and why it matters to your community. Be clear and make it relatable. Otherwise, you’re assuming that folks will read between the lines, and you know what they say...
“Honesty is the best policy.” – Benjamin Franklin
Stories fall flat when they’re not believable, so authenticity matters. Asking people to believe something takes trust, which must be earned. For government communicators, this means that your agency’s story needs to be honesty and reality. If there is a problem, say it. If details are still coming into focus, tell them you’re working on it. This is good practice for two reasons: people will respect the story and they’ll be invested to know the ending.
"The more you know, the more you realize you don't know." – Aristotle
This is particularly true when the storyteller has a different background, skill level or familiarity with the topic at hand than their audience. Engineers anyone? As a communicator, our job is to translate and consolidate technical information into stories that can be understood. To give credit to engineers and technical experts of the world, their jobs require highly detailed knowledge of a topic, so it makes sense that their instinct is to use the language they know. The diameter of a pipeline, for instance, is a detail that matters to a construction project; however, the public would not understand the implications of such a fact. Best to leave it out of your story.
If you need help articulating your agency’s story or have a problem you just can’t define, book a complimentary consultation with us. We’d love to help tell your story.
* This phrase is commonly attributed to Wilde, and it sure sounds like him. However, there is no written proof that he coined the phrase. It was too good not to include, though, so we’ll give him credit with an asterisk.