Do, Feel, Believe, Know
Last week, I mentioned approaching communications with the audience in mind. Here’s a more fleshed out framework for doing just that.
There are many communication frameworks out there, but this one was inspired by reading Let the Story Do the Work by Esther Choy. Essentially, when preparing for a specific communication, one should think through the following:
DO: What do I need the other person (or people) to do as a result of my message?
FEEL: What emotions will drive them to take that action?
BELIEVE: What beliefs (mental frameworks) does the audience currently have? And what beliefs are required to reach the conclusions I want?
KNOW: What information is required to drive those beliefs?
A bit more on each below:
DO
Esther Choy frames storytelling this way: “the goal of a story told in a business context is to inspire action, no matter how big or small.” On the other hand, if there’s no intended action—even if it is only to consider an idea—there’s no point in having the communication.
Hence, the intended action is the place to start the planning. It will guide the structure and conclusion of the message.
FEEL
On the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, marketing professor Baba Shiv talked about the importance of emotions in driving decisions:
“Yeah, the fundamental premise, this is based in all the evidence out there that most of human decisions and human behaviors are shaped by emotion and not by reason. And then, if you ask me to put a number to this based on all the evidence out there[,] I would conjecture something like 90 to 95 percent of our decisions, our behaviors are constantly being shaped non-consciously by [the] emotional brain system.”
The implication, he says, is that “the first thing to do is to play into the emotional brain rather than the rational brain” in our communications.
For example, it’s not the logic that tells us to invest or not invest in a project. It’s the excitement about the possibility of the return or the fear of what happens if the investment is not made.
BELIEVE
In Let the Story Do the Work, Choy writes: “When most people are preparing to tell their stories, they tend to think only about what they will tell and how they will tell it. Too often they neglect to think about how their audience will react to the stories, as influenced by their own needs and preferences.”
When preparing a communication, we’re often caught up in our own thought patterns. To us, the facts we’re laying out are perfectly reasonable, and logically end in the conclusion. But if we don’t think about what beliefs or frameworks the audience has, then there’s a risk that the message won’t land.
Through the lens of being a strategic communicator, a simple version of this is: What do these people care most about, and why?
And if we realize that we don’t know what beliefs the audience already has, it might call for shifting the preparation to reach understanding, or to start with asking rather than telling.
KNOW
Obviously, a communication has to have information, but the information is the last thing to think through for a reason. One can only have a refined editorial lens of what information to provide after tackling the questions above.
Choy suggests that stickiness is an important criterion for deciding which information to keep.
She writes: “Unfortunately, we live in a data-overloaded world where most information is quickly commoditized and information without sufficient context or stickiness is quickly forgotten. So you have to be highly strategic about how you present the information you want your audience to retain.”
And in my experience, the stickiest information usually isn’t in the fine points of a rigorous analysis (though, surely, that’s in the appendix). More likely, it’s the surprising fact, the interesting story that exemplifies the analysis, or the witty turn of phrase that lands most with the audience.
Put another way: Analysis is good, but “15 minutes will save you 15% on your car insurance” is what people will remember.