One Story Never Suits Them All
I.e., Don’t Emotionally Appeal To Dictators
To me:
A Story is a way of seeing a certain part of the world in a certain way.
Storytelling is how we tell those stories to others to convince them of the story’s ‘truth’.
A single Story can be Storytold (communicated, spread, suggested) in near-infinite ways. I’ll call them ‘Story Frames’ for now.
A Narrative is a different beast, a chaotic Pandora’s box with no rhyme and reason except belief. That’s for another read (like right here, where I discuss my New Vision for Strategic Narrative: Going Far, Far Beyond the Boardroom).
My question, conundrum: Why don’t people see this?
Why do we craft — then promptly settle — on a story?
And not just a story — but a certain way of telling a story?
We then, like magpie-lemming hybrids, proceed to share that same Story to all. Handing it out with the grace of a rich Girl Scout, spilling cookies as she skips, in it only for the ‘experience’.
Perhaps that’s where the 5-Second Rule comes into play. For onlookers and ‘target audiences’ (that dreadful, cookie-cutter word that I can imagine Dahmer whispering to himself in a scum-soaked mirror), those spilled cookies are appetising for a moment or two, before we realise they've been tainted.
They’re not for us.
That Girl Scout dropped them, leaving crumbs in her wake.
But if the sweet tooth ain’t even stimulated, why would victims target audiences follow the sugar-bricked road to you, the Storyteller? Why would we believe — be convinced of your vision, your product, your idea — when you toss it off with such reckless abandon (and lack of strategic thought) that it turns our desire to know more completely (and utterly) flaccid?
It’s Everywhere.
Although my work focuses on identity and strategic narratives for ambitious founders, CEOs, creators, and brands, this isn’t just an issue unique to them. It’s rampant. It’s everywhere.
Most depressingly… it’s found in the appeals that deeply inspiring (courageous, incredible, and every other positive adjective possible) changemakers make to world leaders.
Tears locked, crackling throat loaded, changemakers walk to the podium (or their platform of choice). They strategically look left, pause, look right — as if assessing these individuals — these ‘true’ decision-makers in summits, in conferences, in front of phones capturing X-shared snippets — as if passing judgement upon them.
Why-oh-why-oh-why!
Such a Story Frame is about as effective as scolding a cat.
There’s no common language being spoken.
You yell, and still, paws cocked, they glance deep into those fiery-eyes-of-yours, and gently (ever-so-gently) push your Fabergé egg to the floor.
You yell. Yet, they’ll do it again.
The cycle repeats.
And the world continues as it is. The status quo licking itself clean after each disaster.
But telling the wrong type of story to an audience is more alienating than speaking another language — it is offensive, attacking, and the recipient sees through it as manipulation.
The Lesson?
The Story is there.
But the Story Frame is misaligned.
Dictators don’t spare the dramatic.
Why don’t people see this?
