Communicate Intentionally to Connect with Others

Many of us communicate for a living, but don’t realize it as clearly as we should. Think about every email (or article) you write, meeting you attend, Slack message you send to your colleagues, executives and supporting cast. More of your time is spent telling stories than writing code, developing processes or doing the work listed on your job description. And yet, few are trained in the art and science of effective communications. Let’s change that.

Corporate Culture

First off, each company/organization has its own way of communicating that is as unique as the brand under which it sits. I’ve worked with groups that engage orally over slideware and some that have written guidelines and templates for everything from a text message to presentation format by organizational hierarchy. Our first job is to understand how your organization values the Yin and Yang of effective communication; human connection and drive to data. We’ll dive into each, then circle back with general best practices and nailing the product mix.

The Stories We Tell

Making a Human Connection

Connecting with your audience, regardless of title, requires a cogent story. The story you tell will express how and why life changes. Similar to a three act play or your favorite book, there’s a current state, a pivotal challenge or antagonist, rising to a climax, then into your proposed resolution. From Homer’s Odyssey to Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, stories have varied little throughout history. Our tastes in subject matter may have changed and the local flavor of the author varies, but the format remains a reliable constant.

Why should I tell a story at all when the data speaks for itself?

Storytelling is about moving people, persuading or confirming what our intellect knows (or will learn) to connect a narrative. Rarely will you find a chart that conveys your ultimate purpose and great storytellers understand how a proper narrative provides the glue that brings together a big idea. Great stories show the struggles between expectation and reality with clarity and honesty. They tie together the threads that bind us, separate us and assuage our greatest fears.

Authenticity
As in everything we do, from selecting a job to buying a new car or finding the love of your life, authenticity is the key. Tell your story, not the story you assume the audience wants to hear. You were hired for the voice that is yours alone. The temptation to fold our ideals into the corporate wrapper is strong, but you will never engender the human connection without bringing yourself to the party. Ultimately, we follow people in whom we believe and stories that are credible, personal, and hit our triggers effectively.

Think about these 3 storytelling elements when framing your next formal communication:

1. What are the acts in my play?
2. How do I connect with human purpose?
3. Can I convey credibility and honesty?

I Believe in Data

The Appeal to Reason

One side of the discussion is about the art of storytelling, the format through which we convey our story with authenticity. The other is understanding the unique supporting mechanisms that allow for that connection to succeed. Without reason, enflamed passions will be met with skepticism and your credibility will fail to find its mark.

Clean Data

We learned this in undergrad, when negotiating with parents or signing a contract. Clarity of data enhances your ability to drive home a point. That means data free of complexity, but providing a balanced perspective. Hiding the bad news by removing it or diminishing its view will always be questioned. You work with smart people, don’t attempt to mislead them. Even if not intentional, we’re invested in our stories and often it shows. I’ve reviewed hundreds of presentations that were well-meaning, but painted an incomplete picture out of pride or fear or audience reaction.

Avoid Distractions

Keep away from bold colors, 3D charts and other techniques that make your intellectual pitch fall flat. Simplicity here is key. With a diverse audience in person or over indirect communication, your words and your data story will likely be shared to unknown parties. Anything that distracts from your message and cannot be clearly understood by an uninvolved colleague (find some to try yours out on) will be a net negative. Bias in either visual technique or perception of incomplete data will unravel this portion of your pitch. Enough said.

Show Your Work

Whether in an appendix, shared spreadsheet or back of a napkin, be prepared to show your work. Just like in high school algebra, you may know the answer, but the intellect of your audience often craves seeing it worked out. You may not think a group of executives wants to hear the story behind the data, but you’ll be surprised what rabbit holes can be entered when that craving strikes.

Think about these 3 data story techniques when supporting your next communication:

1. Have I told the whole story with precision?
2. Have I used approved local techniques to show the data?
3. Am I able to show my work?

General Best Practices and Home Stretch

Basic Truths

Some truths I’ve found through the years and across companies follow. You’ve seen many of these in LinkedIn articles or from corporate coaches so don’t expect too many miracles or aha moments.

Drop the Jargon

That’s right, I said drop it. Those buzzwords and jargon mean something to you, but often they serve to obfuscate clarity. See, my point was just made. When talking to a peer audience, unleash the acronyms if that saves time and it’s a known group, but your exec audience may be far less familiar with your acronyms and without plain, straight talk, will get caught up in the words, not the message.

Get Current

You may not know your audience well, but you likely have a path to understanding what each of them values most and is incentivized to care about. It’s not dishonest to ask others about their passions and it’s advised to listen as much as possible before you create a story that will resonate. When you interact with executives, you’re speaking with people that wield influence over significant areas of focus. This responsibility is not weightless and a degree of confidence, experience and knowledge will be tools in their arsenal. You cannot prepare for every question, but you can ask what they will most likely value and practice how to understand and communicate on those subject lines.

Find the Purpose

A story is nothing without purpose. Shopping that same tired presentation across multiple audiences rarely meets the mark, even in buttoned-down, homogenous organizations. When you pick your storytelling style, you should know what the purpose of your communication is. Are you aiming simply to inform, to persuade, to pivot? Many communications end with an ask. Is yours direct and was that intent stated up front? If the subject is broad, you may need tailored approaches for different audiences and purposes, despite the intellectual portion of your content remaining the same.

Pace Yourself

Modulate your pace and voice. Your powerpoint may sing with data and a cogent message that sparks the intellect, but it is your body language, your tone and the pace of conversation that carries the day. By understanding your currencies, as in our earlier note, you can vary your tone and adapt both your energy and pace to match the expectations of your audience.

That is not to say that your usual, ebullient self is not of value for a somber group, but wisdom as to where to show your spark while communicating at your audience’s level is something natural storytellers take for granted. Read your room, learn the cues and adapt quickly. You may need to speed up to cover ground quickly for impatient execs or slow down and take the long route home.

Elegantly Simple

The best stories told are those that resonate throughout the ages. A Greek tragedy works today because it’s a tale of human woe we can personally engage with on an emotional level. Flowery language does not win the day. Despite my internal ache to pepper this article with the trappings of my eclectic lexicon, it should serve as a warning. Simple stories follow the old adage “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.” Supporting evidence should be free of clutter and to the point without being misleading and should be additive to the conversation.

Creating the Right Recipe

If you understand your audience, your purpose and the right methods to support your communication, all that’s left is the right mix. This is an area many get tangled up in, putting everything and the kitchen sink into the communication. I’ve been guilty of this countless times over the years and it leads us to another meta truth, be precise. With limited time, you’ll need to craft that 30-minute meal that hits on all the food groups without noise or filler.

Quick example time. I once (well, maybe many times) had a public-facing incident on a software platform I supported. In this case many customers could not complete their business while our platform was down. In the aftermath I was asked to summarize the incident and provide a remediation plan. Classic after-action type of report. I’ve done dozens of these and apparently, done most of them poorly without knowing it.

This time, however, I followed the simple rules above and thought about my audience, my supporting data and a clear narrative for how to convey, with purpose, the story of what happened and how we’d improve. This took two forms. A written communication to a diverse audience which highlighted a few charts showing the error, the root cause and actions to eliminate future concerns. This was dispassionate in what it showed, but brought support for the humans involved into focus and our confidence in them going forward. At the heart of technology, most problems are actually human. My purpose was to inform and support and my limited word count carried the day.

Next we had the executive committee review. In person, very senior, designed for different needs. This time accountability was my purpose. The details were less relevant, but my credibility as a leader and platform owner was at stake. I proved I understood the cause, had confidence in a solve and went the extra mile to apply my thinking to similar issues across the company. I had been briefed on the audience, did my homework and connected a three act play in 5 minutes. Slightly terrifying at the time, but my preparedness paid off and it will for you, too.

Your corporate culture, audience and purpose may vary, but the toolkit provided here and elsewhere can serve you well. Whatever mix of human and data story you tell, make it authentic and uniquely you. Your brand is on everything you write, every word you speak and it doesn’t take long to earn a reputation for or against your ability to influence through communication. Practice with trusted friends and colleagues and see just how much of your job comes down to communicating effectively.