Business of Story For Want of a Story, the Democrats Kingdom will be Lost
As the Kavanaugh hearing underscored, the Democrats still lack a focused, cohesive narrative on which to build their platform. Dr. Randy Olson, who appeared on this show the day after Trump's election to the White House, reveals how Donald Trump and the Republicans continue to steamroll the Democrats for want of a story.
From his post: "Rather than presenting a clear ABT structured narrative (Kavanaugh wants to be a Supreme Court judge AND a supreme court judge needs to have the right temperament, BUT he doesn’t, THEREFORE he needs to be rejected), they took a shotgun approach and ended up with a laundry list of complaints."
A revelation hit me at the beginning of the show taken from one of my favorite poems, For Want of a Nail, that, at least to me, sums the problem with the Democratic Party's approach to communications.
For Want of a StoryFor want of a story, the vision was lost. For want of a vision, meaning was lost. For want of meaning, emotion was lost. For want of emotion, empathy was lost. For want of empathy, connection was lost. For want of connection, camaraderie was lost. For want of camaraderie, the mission was lost. For want of a mission, the election was lost. All for the want of a simple story.
For want of a story doesn't just happen to Democrats. It happens to all of us. If you're uncertain where to start with your presentation, speech, whitepaper, website...any communications...use the And, But & Therefore narrative structure to find your focus. Land on your one-word theme (Like the Dems. should've focused on "temperament" in the Kavanaugh hearings), and captivate your audience.
On today's show, Dr. Randy Olson shares with you the wonderful journey of telling stories not OF Science but ABOUT Science. He is a Harvard Ph. D. evolutionary biologist who gave up tenure at the University of New Hampshire to study filmmaking at the University of Southern California. He has created three documentaries and written three books to help scientist become better communicators using the power of story.
Olson also consulted with the Hillary campaign and cautioned them that they'd lose to Trump if they didn't get their story straight. The rest is history, and you can hear Olson here on this special episode of the Business of Story the day after Trump's election to the White House where he reveals the secret behind Trump's narrative intuition.
My goal with that particular episode was to help listeners understand the magic to combat the spell.
Today, let’s unravel the secrets of telling stories that do make a point, and understand the old and overused but often understated line, “less is more.”
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