Darrell L. Browning is a principal founder of BrowningLaFrankie LLC, a Philadelphia-area based company specializing in helping companies manage crises, train leaders in media and presentation skills in addition to facilitating strategic change through leadership development and organizational development workshops. BrowningLaFrankie are business communication trainers-of-choice for The Wharton School MBA Program at the University of Pennsylvania. For more information see http://www.browninglafrankie.com.
By Darrell L. Browning
Storytelling--even while generally explaining something to another person--nearly always involves painting a picture with words. Writers see creating pictures with words as our primary task, especially former print journalists like myself. Rod Stewart may have been correct when he pined that every picture tells a story, yet the reverse is also true: every story tells a picture, particularly when spoken.
What may surprise you is that nearly every business communication, be it a quick directive in your office to a presentation to an employee group, can be modeled upon this concept.
So how does one communicate more effectively using our "picture" model? First, picture an end in sight. Decide what you want to accomplish before, not during, the communication. This is important for two reasons: the first is that you need to know where you are going. Communicate with a purpose in mind. The second is strategic: always try to "link" communications with other strategic objectives. That way, you won't have to continually create a new "picture" for your direct reports, board members or leadership teams. When you speak of arriving at the end of the tunnel, everyone will "see" it.
There are only four ways in which people communicate with each other: Educate, Inform, Persuade or Entertain. Light up your story by linking your picture to one of those four purposes. Find comparatives and illustrations to build a compelling story.
People love meandering stories--but get to the point. Remember, the pictures in your story are meant to provide reference points--lamp posts to the communication at hand and, in the process, make them real to the listener.
For more information see http://www.browninglafrankie.com.
©BrowningLaFrankie 2009
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