Category: Communication

The Importance of Story

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

There are thousands of bad presentations. What makes a good presentation?

Nancy Duarte looks at the importance of stories and narratives in our collective history, and how the use of storytelling can captivate audiences.

In it’s most simple structure, a story contains a likable hero, who encounters a roadblock, and overcomes the adversity to achieve a goal.

This is one of my favorite presentations and part of my recent research into storytelling, designing presentations, communication, and public speaking.

What’s Your Story?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

You. 

On the cover of a magazine.

Big, bold, splashy words. You’re wearing something sharp. Five years down the road from now, you’re doing an exclusive interview, and someone is telling your story to a captive audience.

Just a few questions for you, in this daydream:

First, what magazine would it be?

Second, what would the headline say about you or your project?

And, more importantly, what would the article be about?

In the last trip I took to Costa Rica with a group of women entrepreneurs, Allie Siarto led a series of small-group discussions by posing a question and asking us each to explore the answers.

An entrepreneur who co-founded LoudPixel and works as a photographer on weekends, Allie is one of my peer heroes, someone who I can look to as a model for creating and changing the way work is done and how we think about inventing your career. In asking this question, she asked us to consider what our future story looked like.

What’s your story?

This question looks at three important components of your story. This exercise tells you a lot about your project, career and personal vision.

First, it tells you who your audience is and what the size of your target market is. If you’re looking to be on the cover of a niche specialty magazine, your target market is much smaller than a mainstream publication such as Time or The New Yorker. That’s fine. It’s your community or market, and it’s not going to be the same for everyone. Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fast Company are some of my favorites–and yet these are still specialized, target groups that not everyone is interested in.

Second, it tells you what arena you want to play in; who your peers are, and what sort of work you’d be doing. In one of the magazines I regularly read, Landscape Architecture Magazine gives me a good idea of who my peer group is. Flipping to the table of contents, checking out the authors, and taking a look at the credits (from editors to the national group), tells me the people I’m looking to learn from, compete against, work with, and share professional accreditation and acknowledgement with.

And third, this exercise prompts you to paint the story of yourselves after success. Akin to creating a vision map for where you want to go, you get to create your story backwards by understanding what your future success looks like.

Take a minute to dream…

What would your headline be? What would they say about you? Put your dreamer’s hat on, and picture yourself in five  years’ time. The projects you are working on currently, invisibly, are noticed. You’ve put them in the world, you’ve constructed something long-term that has added up to something. Maybe your recipes are featured on a local cooking magazine. Or your crochet projects are a photographic spread in a crafts magazine. Or your teaching is covered in the regional papers.

Maybe you’re a hero, and you’ve saved someone’s life on the street, rescuing them from the dangers on an oncoming car, and you get 15 minutes showcasing your brilliance.

What would they say about you?

What do you want to be known for?

Write your story in advance. Picture yourself in 5 or 10 years’ time, and write the article. I’m doing it now; I’ve actually just finished a 5000-word outline and draft of a feature article that I’d love to have put on the cover of one of my favorite magazines.

What would the story be about?

How would the story change the lives of other people? What would you have done that makes a difference?

The act of visualizing this storyline is one powerful exercise. Knowing what you want to achieve, and what’s important to you, and what excites you can give you cause to work hard during the days beforehand. It helps you prioritize what you do and don’t do. It gives you a way to layer each piece of your life together towards a goal.

If you’re daring enough, write the article. Don’t be intimidated about the awkwardness of writing about yourself, or the weirdness of it–get over that. Take a piece of paper, cast off the shadows of doubt, and indulge in your fantasy for a few minutes. Write the best version of yourself, tell the story of what beautiful things you’ve done, and really be proud of yourself for the accomplishments that you’ve achieved.

Taking the time to dream is powerful. Taking the time to carve out your thoughts about who you are and what you want to become is one of the first tools you can engage in on the way to getting there.

What’s your headline?

Why Do Cars Have Brakes?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

“The more sure we are, the more likely we are to suffer an illusion.” – Jerry Weinberg

Why do automobiles have brakes?

To stop, right?

To stop. That’s one answer.

Is there another answer? I heard this on the radio recently, and I jotted it down in my mental notebook.

Cars have brakes so they can go fast.

It’s the ability to stop quickly that allows us to travel at speeds much faster than if we didn’t have brakes.

Without brakes, we’d all drive very, very slowly. Brakes give us flexibility in stopping when you want, where you want, and how you want.

Analogously, in your life it’s the very presence of boundaries that create new freedoms. Freedom isn’t free. (Similarly paradoxical, having choice isn’t what helps us in decision-making.) Having a gas pedal isn’t what enables you to go fast. It’s having a gas pedal AND a brake pedal.

Sometimes the short-term sacrifices in our lives are actually enabling us to achieve long-term goals. Your brakes are helping you go faster, even if it’s frustrating to stop at the stop sign.

Also to note: how you answered this question clues you into how your brain operates when thinking about actions, functions, and relationships among systems. Thinking that brakes brake; and that’s all, is a limited view on the capability of a function in a system. Often, each action or movement has multiple effects in the system.

How can you train your brain to look again and see if you can find other answers? It’s very Jerry Weinberg (author of An Introduction to General Systems Thinking.)

The next time you do something, ask yourself how it works. And ask yourself, is that the only thing happening here?

Probably not.

So, why do cars have brakes?

“The boundary of one thing is often the beginning of another” – Leonardo

Four Mantras All Writers Know And Love

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I’m on a writing retreat with my younger sister and family this weekend, and we’re editing, writing, and working on several projects (from crochet to design to catching up on other unfinished ideas).

We were sitting by the ocean, bantering about writing and editing. She shared four “writing mantras,” from one of her favorite teachers, and we both realized that these are rules we live by in our own writing practice. I loved them and I thought I’d share.

If you can’t read well, you can’t write well. The most important thing you can do to be a better writer is read. I recently listed a years’ worth of my favorite books, and I’m already embedded in at least half a dozen new novels, historical accounts, and business books this month alone. Immersing yourself in good quality writing is the best teacher.

There is no good writing, there is only good re-writing. When I work with new writers, I often tell them to expect the first page to be “full of shit, with a few gems hidden in there somewhere.” It takes time, patience, and a whole bunch of red-lines to work with words on a page. It also takes the courage to put words down on paper without initial judgment or concern. Just do it, and let yourself write. Don’t let your judgment of yourself preclude you from starting in the first place. Trust that it can continue to get better with editing, time, and practice.

The goal is not complex words and simple ideas, but simple words and complex ideas. If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. Writing does not need to be complicated, pretentious, confusing, or full of jargon. To me, writing is a process for building understanding for yourself, and others. For myself, I often copy notes, explore ideas, and re-work words on a page just to tango with an idea until it makes sense in my mind. If I can’t explain it to people, then I’m not well-versed enough in the concept. Writing is a tool for communication (externally) as well as understanding (internally). Often, much of my writing is just about my words, rants, ideas, and explorations–before any of it gets shared with anyone else.

What you take out is just as important as what you leave in. Getting to a clear, simple essay or point is not straightforward. Often, I have to write 5-6 pages just to get to a distillation of one great paragraph. It’s part of the process.

What are your writing dreams and goals? Are you upping the ante with your writing? I’ve recently received multiple messages from people who want to be writing more. My advice? Do it, and do it as often as possible. A little is a lot.

 

 

A Rant on Ridiculous Words and Phrases

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Perhaps it was my foray into Twitter and Google+ this past year, but I’ve found myself simultaneously overjoyed by the opportunities and connections, and also, now, a bit weary of repetition. Some of the same themes, ideas, and mantras crept up time and again, each time undermining their efficacy and usefulness. In particular, given the limitation of 140-characters (a typical tweet), I find that people keep using the same (awesome!) words (epic!) over (insane!) and (sweet!) over again (cue: Top Ten Things You Must Do To Become Cooler Than You Are Now).

Anyone else tired? Maybe, of course, I just need to shake it up and start following different threads. But for now, I’ll rant.

Here’s a list of what I think are the most over-used words from the past year. These aren’t the 100 most common words in the English language (words like “the,” “and” or “if”) — these are words that have crept into common lexicon and subsequently eroded their usefulness. Without further ado, I bring to you the list of most over-used words of 2011 (I, too, am guilty of these–please note locations where I’ve self-edited said words out of this post!). 

Words (and phrases) to eliminate from our vocabulary

Epic. Really. Epic? Is it really epic? Seriously. I’m sure. I’m certain that your blog post, or personal photograph, or even your dinner meal was epic. Or how about this: it definitely wasn’t, and I don’t care. Epic is for things like wire-walking. Or doing an entire iron man while pulling, pushing, and running with your disabled son. Or a dog jumping out a plane because of his sheer love and trust of humans, not because it’s a few words on another internet page (see this rant on photography, with a photo of the dog about halfway down). 

Amazing. To cause amazement. To induce a state of surprise and wonder. Really, see micro-rant from “epic,” above. The cosmos are amazing. The discovery of a helio-centric universe and it’s subsequent explanation and rebuttals by the church is pretty amazing. The internet is amazing. Physics and mathematics from the 16th century, aka Galileo, is quite amazing. The word debuted in 1530, so I’m pretty fairly sure Galileo (circa 1564) might have used the word once or twice. (I have included the original drafts’ use of “pretty,” which is a word I also think is overused–see below, and slap me on the wrist for that.)

Super. This one just makes you sound like you’re somewhere between the ages of twelve and eighteen, and no older. I’ve used it handfuls of times this year already, to dismissive and skeptical looks. Trust me, stop using this word. Like, that’s super! Yeah. Not so good.

Freaking.  A filler word used to make other words seem even more important, but usually has the opposite effect. That’s pretty freaking cool.

Outstanding. I’m a nice person. But most things aren’t outstanding. Things are well done. Good. In progress. Great. Incomplete. Very well researched. Time-intensive. Find another word that doesn’t erode the validity of this one.

Awesome. Just see “epic” and “amazing” above.

Like. Makes you sound … like… a valley girl. Want to know how to eliminate it from your speech? Videotape yourself while you give a presentation. Or just videotape yourself and try talking about anything. Have a friend count on their hand the number of times you use this word in conversation with them.  If you don’t mind them doing so, have them slap you each time. It’s a nervous tic, a habit, a lazy habit of speech that can be eliminated. Bring it to the front of your consciousness. Then, try to speak without using the word going forward.

Totally. What does this word even mean? I get the vague sense that it should mean complete, or full, or in total agreement. We use it to offer concurrence or acceptance of what someone else is saying, and we use it to prod someone to keep speaking (or worse, to finish speaking). What if you smiled and nodded instead? If you used your body language instead of flippant words to make a point?

Word. This should have died years ago.

Literally. If it’s not literal, don’t use it.

Seriously. Right?

“See what I’m saying” which is equally interchangeable with “Know what I mean?”  (see below). These phrases bubble up like nervous chatter and become filler phrases that indicate that you’re not sure if someone is listening to you.

“Know what I mean?” Equally interchangeable with, “You know?” as a question inserted at every breath point in a sentence, ending in a lilt, you know?, that kind of, like, you know?, drives the other person bat-shit crazy.

Ending anything with questions. For the love of God. If you’re going to say something, have the courage to believe in it. Say it with purpose. Intention. Belief. If you don’t believe in yourself, who will? At worst case, you could be wrong, and then you can issue a corrective statement. … right?

Bold. “It’s a bold new century.” Is it really now? Are you sure? Because I think it’s just a new century. We’re talking a lot of bold nonsense. Let’s get real.

Passion(ate). Your passion could eat itself off the page and sell you a job. In fact, I think you’re so passionate, I’m certain you’ve said it six different times in your resume and cover letter. Find a different word. In fact, skip the word altogether and go straight to the examples–the ones where you’ve volunteered, donated, started your own project, built, and succeeded in doing these things, and your passion rings true. You don’t have to say it anymore.

Social media. Two of the most generic words: media, how we communicate, and social, how we interact. So you’ve used “social media” to do … what, exactly? If you say you’re a social media strategist, I’ll look at you with glazed eyes, unsure if you just surf facebook or if you’re actually doing something more useful with your time. Tell me more specifically about who you are and what you do; what your objectives are, and what tactics, specifically, have worked in your industry and why. Everyone’s calling themselves’ a social media strategist nowadays. Don’t be one of them.

Just. Inserting the word “just” before any phrase undermines it’s strength. It’s a way of putting a clause in front of your work, of reducing the importance of what you do. I’m just a girl. I’m just an intern. I’m just doing my job. It’s an excuse, it’s bullshit, and if you’re just doing something, perhaps you shouldn’t do it at all.

Pretty. A filler word, used to reduce the value of other words. “Yeah, that’s pretty cool. … dontcha think?”

Kinda. See “Just” and “Pretty.”

If you use any of these words, imagine me hitting you each time you do it. Stop. And likewise, remember that bloggers usually write posts because they need to hear the words as well: give me a little nudge if I slide back into this lazy form of writing. I know that we can be more creative, more expressive, and more clear in our use of language to make the point that we’re trying to make. We have one of the most  a nuanced, elaborate language–a complex blend of German, Anglo, Saxon, Roman, Celtic, and multiple other influences.

There are a few recent posts I enjoyed — such as Alpha Dictionary’s 100 beautiful words list, which gives us 100 under-used words to add to our lexicon. Try them.

Thanks.

Any other terrible phrases, words, or commonalities that should be eliminated from our everyday vocabulary? Let me know and I’ll add them to this post if I agree. :)