It's been a long while since we've shared a new post on The Story is the Strategy. I hope you’ve been keeping well.

I've been thinking a lot about the advent of AI as it pertains to writing. I'm right in the thick of it at Google, and I have some new thoughts to share on how you can use these tools to your advantage by applying some of the principles we’ve explored here.

I’ve just launched a new newsletter about it on LinkedIn called “LLMs and Eloquence.” If that sounds interesting to you, please consider subscribing!

I’d love to hear from you, especially if there are any questions or topics you’d like this newsletter to address.

It lives on LinkedIn for now, but if there’s enough interest I’ll move it to the open web like this one.

Hope to see you there! If you want a sneak peek, here’s the text of the inaugural post:

Less than two years after the launch of ChatGPT, we’re already living in a world where AI can write everything from emails to novels.

Dystopia? Hardly. I write for a living, and I couldn’t be more excited. AI is unlocking faster, more effective communication for overworked professionals everywhere. The thrill (and relief!) of delegating that painful first draft is real - and it’s something we should all embrace.

But we need to be smart about how we use these powerful tools. It’s tempting to think that AI might render expertise in writing obsolete. The truth is, in the age of AI, understanding what constitutes "good" writing is more critical than ever.

One problem I’m sure you’ve noticed is the sheer volume of so-so AI writing flooding the internet. Not terrible, but not memorable. That sea of sameness is making it harder to stand out.

Turns out that for the qualities that make writing sing - persuasion, nuance, and originality - AI needs strong guidance to deliver the good stuff. This presents a significant opportunity for the people who know how to use the tools effectively.

I want to help you be one of those people. Every single time we communicate at work, we’re making an impression on our colleagues and it needs to be as strong as possible.

Let me give you an example. At Google, we use business snippets in our internal comms to share key information about the business. Fun fact for internet geeks: these snippets are a distant cousin of the “rich snippets” of text you see under the blue links in your search results, describing the web page you’re about to click on.

Snippets are really important at Google - but they’re not fun to write. It’s a pretty unforgiving format that requires you to strip out everything but the essential. You might need to summarize a whole marketing campaign in just a few lines. Mark Twain’s “I would’ve written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time” very much applies.

I’m seeing more and more of our teams use AI to prepare these snippets. That’s great, and the more people experimenting with AI tools, the better. But one early challenge we've found is that when you read a few AI-written snippets in a row, they can sound a little samey - lacking the spark and substance and human touch that truly capture attention. That’s a missed opportunity to stand out.

So how do you avoid the sea of sameness, while still reaping the benefits of AI? I think it begins with the concept of "creative judgment." Our traditional Product Marketing Manager job ladder at Google always emphasized this as a fundamental skill. PMMs aren’t expected to create every piece of marketing content from scratch (a truly impossible task). But they do need to be really good at recognizing and articulating what "great" looks like, guiding agencies and creatives to produce the high-quality work needed at scale.

In the age of AI, creative judgment isn't just a specialized skill for marketers; it's something we all need to cultivate. And the foundation of creative judgment is expertise.

That’s what I'll be exploring in this newsletter: the interplay of expertise, writing, and AI. How do we leverage our unique knowledge and perspectives to elevate AI-generated content from commodity to captivating? How do we ensure our voices stand out?

If you’re interested, please subscribe to this new newsletter ("LLMs and Eloquence") for more. And I’d love to hear your experiences and perspective in the comments below.

It was said over a drink at the pub and clearly meant in jest (and aimed at my rapidly increasing year count), but it stuck with me. So, let’s talk about inflation.

The official line from the Fed remains that the highest monthly inflation rate in 30 years is a temporary aftereffect of the pandemic, still winding its way through the supply chain.

But this explanation isn’t seeming to pass the pub test for most Americans. After all, gas (petrol for our international readers) prices in the US are at multi-year highs and everything from used cars to turkeys (it’s Thanksgiving week in the US) is more dear than it was a year ago.

It’s increasingly clear that inflation may not be transitory and that the skeptics aren’t going to be won over by carefully crafted words from the Fed.

The Biden Administration is only now starting to tweak their messaging on inflation. But it might be too little, too late.

The most important lesson we can take from their missteps is that there are four principles that are critical to follow when delivering bad news:

1. Be first 

2. Be clear

3. Be truthful

4. Be accountable

Unfortunately, there isn’t much about the Biden Administration’s communications approach to inflation that has followed this guidance. Let’s break down what they did wrong so we can learn from their missteps.

Being second

As Democrats spent the summer trying to pretend inflation wasn’t an issue, Republicans were far ahead of the Administration in sounding the alarm that this isn’t transitory. Biden is finally acknowledging the reality, but has been flat footed. This let Republicans define the (politically expedient, but incorrect) narrative that Democratic overspending is spurring inflation. 

Being vague and half-true

Democrats spent too long pretending inflation was going to go away, then saying it was only in a few types of products, then blaming it on greedy multinational companies. Even though Biden is mostly correct that the primary driver of inflation is (still) related to the pandemic (and is acknowledging this will persist for much of 2022), the half-truths leading up to this point have prevented them from establishing an easy to understand explanation that is factual and can be easily repeated.

Being one of many faces

Biden spent too long delaying addressing the issue and let appointees and supporters try to carry the bag. Being slow to define his story created a leadership vacuum. It’s crucial to have one established voice when communicating bad news to ensure your audience understands who is “in charge”. Biden seems to be getting to this point, but has taken too long to do it.

What do you think? Can the Biden Administration turn around their message enough to keep Democrats in control in 2022?

This inevitably led to lots of people pointing out that General Motors (aka @GM on Twitter) was missing the slam dunk of all slam dunks by not tweeting, well, gm. 

...which, after seeing this joke enough times, led me to click through to @GM and read their profile. Which is actually the point of this post. It’s a great quick lesson in writing a brand vision. Take a look:

What’s going on: 

Between the visuals and the text “we’re on a journey to create a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion,” it’s a pivot away from the automobile of the 20th century (gas guzzlers, fossil fuels) toward a cleaner, safer future.

What works for me:

First, I like the technical execution of the written vision, which is using my two favorite communication rules to great effect: anaphora (zero, zero, zero) and the rule of threes (crashes, emissions, congestion.) Anaphora drives home how powerful it would be to have zero of each of these negative externalities. And the rule of three provides harmony and finality. 

Second, there is emotional resonance here. Good visions are rooted in the possibility of change that produces positive emotion. You want people to WANT the future you’re painting. You want them to be PROUD and EXCITED about making it a reality. This vision paints the picture of a great world a lot of people would be excited to work on. No crashes - no unnecessary deaths; no emissions - no planet burning; no congestion - no wasting time in traffic.

What doesn’t quite work me:

The “we’re on a journey” part - I get it, it’s a car company. Cars take you on journeys. But it feels a little too cutesy and makes even this short vision statement feel a bit overwritten.

Second, where’s the proof that GM can do this? Of course, it’s asking a lot to provide that type of proof in a hundred characters in a Twitter bio. But remember: specificity = credibility. And there’s a gap here, because while GM is an iconic car company, they probably aren’t the first one that comes to mind when you think electric vehicles and AI. So what I would do to solve that is provide ONE highly-specific point that drives home how seriously they take the vision and how they will deliver it. Something like this (which is completely hypothetical but helps you get the idea):

“Creating a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. First up: batteries that last 500 miles.” 

What do you think?

The usage of tweets in news articles (and the media more broadly) is considered fair use. More interesting, from a communication standpoint, is that the standards for an op-ed and a Twitter thread bear more similarities than you might think.

I can hear you scoff already. Surely, this says more about the Daily Mail’s journalism standards than anything else? Either way, it has some useful lessons for us.

What worked? 

Ultimately, the only reason Wagner’s tweets are acceptable as an op-ed is that they are short, to the point, and display a clear and compelling narrative. The fact that they were originally delivered in a chronological tweetstorm is less relevant than their cohesion and clarity. 

That is a winning combination for any piece of communication, so how can you replicate it?

What’s the lesson?

We’ve talked before about the importance of being succinct. We’ve also written about how having a structure can help capture readers’ attention.

This advice holds true, but the harder part is understanding how to edit yourself when you’re not sure what details are most important to your argument. 

Just as readers (subconsciously) appreciate structure, having a template for yourself can also be useful to help you hone your argument and whittle down copy. 

So, when thinking of what details are important to your message, try to write them into a Twitter thread. This likely won’t be the format you end up using, but it will help you do two things.

First, it will force you to make each point succinctly. Sure, you can go over 280 characters as you draft, but this exercise will help you see how clear you can make each point.

Second, by trying to write your argument into a few tweets, you’ll distinguish what is absolutely necessary to your point and what is only complementary (and can thus be cut).

Happy tweeting.

Don’t worry - we’re still going to write our long form posts on specific techniques you can employ to become a better communicator at work, but hopefully this will be useful too. Let us know what you think.

Anyway, onto the post.

If you care about crypto, tech, or are generally active on Twitter, you may have seen Brian Armstrong (co-founder and CEO of Coinbase) reprising one of his regular performances last week — looking tone deaf and seemingly annoying everyone at the same time. 

This is saying something since Armstrong’s communication style is already pretty famously controversial. 

First, there was his manifesto about not bringing politics to work (which he seems more than happy to ignore when his own views are in question). This led to 5% of his team leaving and calls that he was either racist or standing up to a woke mob, depending who you ask. 

Then, he dueled with the SEC (is this building in public?) and got ratio’ed for not knowing what a security product was. 

The latest thread was a Randian take on how America doesn’t celebrate CEOs enough and is going to lose some imaginary, zero-sum battle for entrepreneurs to another country. I can only imagine what his marketing and communications teams think.

What worked? 

Though I can’t figure out his motivation, Armstrong has a gift that is incensing or exciting depending on your politics, point of view, and personality. 

He says what he thinks in a way that suggests he doesn’t really care about the consequences. Like other tech billionaires (cough *Elon* cough), it’s sometimes hard to tell if he revels in the chaos or is two moves ahead of everyone else.

It can be maddening for journalists, exciting for fanbois, confounding for policymakers, and just odd for everyone else. But it is exceedingly on brand (and definitely never boring). And that in itself is a power we’ve talked about before — authenticity.

Even if you ignore the policy misstep in this thread (a newly-minted billionaire CEO calling for people to be nicer to him and his peers after he publicly dragged his own regulator is a choice), it’s the latest attempt by Armstrong to thread a very narrow needle on authenticity. 

What didn’t?

Authenticity is a good thing in communications, provided we allow for ambiguity when we don’t have all the answers and give room for the perspectives of others. If you read the thread (and the replies), it’s clear Armstrong didn’t do this.

The other tricky thing about authenticity is that you can never please everyone. If you’re authentic (and not a typical CEO trying to placate the public and spin their way around a straight answer), you can end up digging your own grave. Who pushes you in depends on the topic.

Sometimes directness is helpful because it points direction and attention at an issue that matters to you (take Armstrong’s earlier jabs at the SEC for example). Other times it may be viewed as necessary by an individual (remember Armstrong’s posts on Coinbase’s mission?), but broadly divisive. And sometimes it doesn’t matter to most, but the speaker’s point of view can make them stumble over their own feet and score an own goal.

What’s the lesson?

Whether you agree with his politics or not, Armstrong says what he thinks — for better or worse. And while authenticity can be a superpower, it doesn’t mean shooting from the hip and saying whatever you think, whenever you feel like it. Let’s look at some examples.

Do you need to draw broader attention to something you care about? Be honest and share your relationship to the topic.

Do you feel you need to speak up about something at work but you’re sure it will be divisive? Try drafting your thoughts first, waiting a few days, and then sharing with a few people in the spirit of inviting feedback and building consensus — even if you know it won’t please everyone.

Do you want to fire from the hip about a topic you feel strongly about but it isn’t necessarily germane to your day to day? Voice your opinion if you must, but recognize that your authenticity in a situation like this doesn’t elevate your communications.

Make sure to embrace authenticity in your communications at work, but do so in a way that preserves you more leeway if you don’t get it quite right the first time. Construct your own framework for when it’s worth employing it in your communication. 

If you’ve ever wondered how a CEO spends their time, you’re in luck. This blog post from Sam Corcos is a detailed account of what it’s like to be CEO at his venture-backed startup, Levels (they make wearable glucose monitors).

Sam’s post breaks down how he spent his time over the past two years (in 15 minute increments!) and has some amazing insights that we can all learn from.

It’s worth reading the whole thing, but I was especially struck by this passage on his main focus.

“Unblocking others is your top priority...as a CEO you’re responsible for the output of the entire organization. In my current role at the company, I think of myself as an information router, so my primary job is to unblock everyone else on the team to operate at peak efficiency... [as] primarily an information router, you need to make communication a top priority...Don’t treat communications as an afterthought. It’s your main job.”

As to how to make communications your main job? Sam’s method for managing this amidst all his other work is to block off time in his calendar to go through various tools they use at Levels (email, messages, etc). There’s some other great productivity ideas in the post, but for our purposes, let’s zero in on this idea that communications is a CEO’s main job. 

From my LinkedIn stalking, Levels is not a big company — they have 40 employees. But the CEO knows that communication is key to solving cross-team problems, setting company strategy, and helping teams get “unstuck”. 

He’s so focused on communicating well that he sets aside 3-4 hours a day to make sure no one is waiting for a response from him. 

This may sound excessive — after all you’re likely not responsible for the entire output of a company. But whatever team you’re on at work, you can benefit from this “CEO-mindset”. 

If you’re an individual contributor, this may take less time. If you’re in a leadership position, you already know most of your job is delegating to your team, so you may find you’re already spending this much time a day communicating with your team. 

But, whatever your position, consider: when was the last time someone was waiting on an answer from you for more than a day or two? Did it slow the team down? Could it have been more quickly resolved if you put “communication” on your to-do list every day and treated it as a core part of your job? 

You may not need hours to clear your emails or Slack messages every day, but it’s a useful exercise to think about how your communication style can speed up, rather than slow down, your team and colleagues. If you do this right, it is a superpower.

For now, I wanted to share part of my summer reading list. If you’re not already subscribed, take a look at the most recent post from the Not Boring newsletter.

It's relatively lengthy, but one of the key themes is the difference between story and narrative and how companies, venture capital funds, and entrepreneurs should be telling their stories and constructing narratives. I hear you asking, “Wait a second, aren't these the same thing?”. Not quite. 

A story is an entity in and of itself. It exists on its own and has familiar traits like a plot and a beginning, middle, and end.

Narrative is the continued compilation of the same (or similar) stories forming into an accepted version of truth. It’s a living reputation about a person, place, or thing. 

Patrick and I obviously think stories are important. Not only is it in our name, but it’s also something we’ve written about many, many times. Most of the advice outlined in the linked post is consistent with themes we’ve covered before. 

And while stories help people remember, the importance of narrative is slightly different. It’s premised on the notion that people are attention poor, you have little time to tell them a story, and you have to repeat stories ad nauseam — in ways that suit your audience’s tastes, platforms, and behaviours — before something sticks.

Narratives are important because once formed, they have longevity — much more than the most recent story on the same topic. Narrative is hard to form, long lived, and (sometimes) impervious to facts.

Packy’s post has lots of great advice for how companies should build narratives (and you should read it fully).

A lot of the tips involve being clear on the narrative you want to build and then letting (and helping) others do it for you. By giving partners, customers, investors, and other stakeholders room to tell your stories for you, it builds authenticity and longevity.

But what about individuals? How should we think about telling stories vs building narrative as people at work?

Next time you’re getting ready to tell a story at work, think about how it plays into your personal narrative — or that of your team or project — and consider a few things. 

1. Narratives compound. Accept that you’ll have to tell similar stories repeatedly before the news sticks and prepare for how and when you’ll share updates or milestones. This will feel repetitive, but that doesn’t mean it is for your colleagues.

2. Share the mic. Realise that it’s not just you who shapes your narrative. Team members, stakeholders, and colleagues (whether uninformed or in the know) all have a voice in building the narrative of you, your team, or project. Do you know what they’re going to say? Do you need to give them context or information to make sure it’s aligned to your view?

3. It’s not all rosy. Sharing bad news is part of being human (and a good communicator). It’s natural that as you share regular updates on your work (which you should be doing), some news won’t be perfect. Don’t sugar coat bad news — accept that it happens, explain why it has, and trust that as long as there are more good stories than bad, that your narrative remains (positively) intact.

As we inch towards normalcy, events are coming back. Concerts and sports are starting up and conferences aren’t far behind. The world’s largest tech conference - Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - will be in person in 2022.

Panels are one of my favourite things at conferences. When done well, they give unexpected perspectives and cover interesting ground. When bad, they’re almost unbearable.

They are also the first public speaking gig most of us have in our career. More common than a keynote, they can invite little preparation and give the illusion of being easy. Nothing is further from the truth.

So, as we get ready to return to in-person conferences, here’s four tips on how to nail your next panel presentation. 

1. Know your role

Every panel has a range of characters. Figure out why you’ve been invited, who your peers are, and what role you want to play.

Are you an industry expert with lots of experience? Perhaps you’re from a different field and can offer contrasting views? Or maybe you’re the wildcard meant to stir it up?

The sooner you figure out your part, the sooner you can decide what about your perspective is unique and how you’re going to get that across.

2. Moderate your peers

Decent moderators do exist. But just as often, a panel is sabotaged by a host who takes too long to get started. Within a few minutes, you’ll also know which of your peers is going to blather on. Don’t contribute to - or tolerate - either. 

If your moderator is hapless, you can steer the discussion or suggest different questions. A good exercise to prepare is to write down a handful of questions you’d ask if you were moderating. Have these ready (to ask and answer yourself or pose to fellow panelists) if things get too dull.

If other panelists drag on, get comfortable interrupting and don’t feel the need to simply agree. Unless you have a build, repeating the same points is a waste of breath and time. 

3. Respect Your Audience

This means prepping like you’re doing a keynote. As you’re not responsible for a whole session, it can be tempting to not fully prepare. This is a recipe for mediocrity. 

You should understand who’s at the event, why they’re attending, and what they came to learn. If it’s a conference full of industry experts, they’ll likely want data and details. If it’s a more general crowd, keep your points high level. As with a speech, the better you know your audience, the more relevant your contribution will be. 

Think through a compelling opening and closing statement, prepare stories to share and anecdotes to spark discussion, and leave the crowd wanting more. If you’re short on oratory inspo, why not learn from the West Wing?

4. Get to the point

All the above is moot if you don’t have anything decent to say. A useful exercise for figuring out your main points is one Patrick covered before.

Write a 250 word summary then edit it down to 50 words. If you can get three things you want your audience to remember into 50 words then you’ll be able to repeat them enough so your audience remembers.

To do this, remember our rules about signposting and internalise them for a panel.

“By highlighting key points in the beginning and the end, you help the listening audience internalise your argument and follow the structure of your talk.”

Ruthlessly repeating the same points will make sure you’re the most memorable panelist the next time you’re at an in-person conference.

Fortunately, there’s something you can do. Here are three of my favorite tips for getting people to pay attention.

1.) Use the right structure

The same chord progressions get used over and over again in hit music. Why? Because they intrinsically sound right - the music pulls us along and we crave hearing the entire progression. The last chord is like a satisfying resolution. Likewise, the same seven basic plots have been used over and over again since, well, the beginning of history. 

Structure matters. The best structure I’ve ever seen for business communication is “WHY” - “WHAT” - “IMPACT”. Start with why it matters for your audience. Briefly explain what the issue is. Describe the impact or share a vision of what the impact could be. It’s like a sandwich with two giant pieces of bread (WHY + IMPACT) and a little filling in the middle (WHAT).

2.) Dial up people’s natural curiosity

Once you have a good foundation in place, you can add a few flourishes. 

Harnessing people’s natural curiosity is your most powerful attention-grabbing tool. It works because our brains have evolved to be endlessly inquisitive. We’re constantly trying to make sense of the world around us. When presented with information gaps, we have a strong natural desire to resolve them - even when it’s about something inconsequential.

The sweet spot is giving people enough information to get them interested, but not enough to feel like they’ve satisfied their curiosity. Questions, either direct or implied, work great here - as does dropping people right in the middle of the action without much context. Consider the first line of 1984: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

3.) Tell a story within your bigger story

If you structure what you’re saying well, it will feel like a story pulling your audience toward the natural conclusion. But you can also add in tiny stories at any point to boost attention. Anytime you want to describe something (“telling” your audience), you can use a tiny story instead. It will achieve more resonance and keep your audience interested (“showing”). This works because stories trigger an emotional response, making them easier to remember.

You might never be as addictive as TikTok, but using these simple tips will vastly increase the quality of your messaging and your ability to cut through. 

Hope you enjoyed this. Please share it on your social networks if so! It would help us out as we try to grow our community of communicators here.

And as always, shoot us an email if you need help with anything specific. 

Thanks for reading.

It’s not surprising that we sometimes hide parts of our personality or values in an effort to fit in at work or go along with an organisation’s values or culture.

The rules for this used to be unspoken, but increasingly it’s explicit. Last year, Coinbase’s CEO said don’t bother bringing your views to work — all that matters is our corporate mission. Basecamp followed suit a few months later and promptly lost a third of their team.

It may seem strange to suggest when companies are showing staff the door for being themselves, but bringing your true self to work is a superpower. 

There are tons of benefits to being authentic. Research shows that forcing ourselves to conform is exhausting and hinders our ability to perform. Compare that to acting authentically which frees up mental energy so we can focus on our strengths. This doesn’t even cover the proven psychological benefits for our well being and mental health.

Writing is one of the most powerful tools we have for communicating at work and is a lever for showing our true selves. Authenticity doesn’t automatically make your writing good, but it does make it effective. So how do we do it?

Vulnerability = leadership

Showing vulnerability takes guts, builds trust, and separates leaders from managers. Why?

Research from Harvard Business School sums it up:

“Vulnerability...does not mean being weak or submissive. To the contrary, it implies the courage to be yourself. It means replacing ‘professional distance and cool’ with uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure…

While we may try to appear perfect, strong or intelligent in order to be respected by others, pretense often has the opposite effect intended. We tend to see right through them and feel less connected. Our brains are wired to read cues so subtle that even when we don’t consciously register the cues, our bodies respond…

Why do we feel more comfortable around someone who is authentic and vulnerable?  Because we are particularly sensitive to signs of trustworthiness in our leaders.”

Authenticity is a hallmark of leadership; how can we amplify this in our writing at work? 

We have to communicate in our natural way and overcome any fear of sharing personal experiences — whether they are positive or negative. Learn how to make your own anecdotes part of the story of your project, product, or campaign.

Speak (only) when you have something to say

A corollary to our lesson on vulnerability is that being authentic doesn’t mean making a million decisions every day on how to bare your soul. It’s about knowing the parts of you that are most important and when to show them. This applies to our writing too.

Determining what’s important to you (and how to show it) can be boiled down to an easy formula. Know something? Say so. Don’t know? Don’t hide it.

Our natural tendency is to avoid looking like we don’t have the answers and it’s easy to default to obfuscation in these cases. But hiding uncertainty in jargon, complex terms, or vague assessments should be avoided at all costs.

Learn how to say (or write) “I don’t know”, “This didn’t work”, or “I don’t understand”. Allowing for ambiguity is vulnerability in action and allows us to consider the perspectives of others. 

Break the rules

On a more practical level, bringing authenticity into our writing means finding our own voice. 

This doesn’t mean always going off the cuff with no preparation or totally ignoring the basics of the craft. We have to know the rules to break them. We still have to be willing to edit, take feedback, and rewrite.

But once you have these foundational elements in place, don’t try to copy someone else. You’ll end up failing anyway, so just be yourself.

Want to crack a joke? Find your way to do it. Don’t understand why we write “Best” at the end of our emails? Then drop it. Think writing with emojis is idiotic? Write single spaced. Focus on content and ideas more than grammar or anything Patrick or I tell you to do.

My go-to technique for this is pretty old school. I read aloud to myself what I’ve written. If the main parts aren’t clear or don’t sound like me, I rewrite.

After all, the only kind of writing is rewriting.

(This entire post is worth a caveat — all this depends on your work place being a safe space where honest voices are tolerated. If this doesn’t reflect where you work, take these points with a grain of salt or figure out how you can adapt them to your workplace.)

Finally, I’d like to ask a favour. If you like our newsletter, let us know why and what types of topics you’d like to see us cover more. We want to make sure our writing will help you improve at work.

And, if you like what you read, please share on your social networks. It would help us out. 

The last thing you want is a Frankendoc - a mish mash of different styles and priorities that is hard to follow and forgettable. So how do you manage the process? Here are a few principles for getting it right.

1. Control access

The first mistake you make is by letting people edit directly. Change the access settings so that people can only comment. This helps set the tone that you are the editor for the piece and holding the pen for any stylistic changes.

2. Be clear about what you’re asking for

If you work in a big organization, and you’re working on a big memo or presentation, you’ll have product people, PR people, lawyers, marketers and more all with an interest. Everyone has a valuable perspective, but you need to be careful of avoiding a free for all. You don’t need the lawyer rewording the section on product benefits to make it “flow better.” This is the road to death by a thousand cuts. 

The easiest way to avoid this is by asking people up front to stay in their lanes when reviewing. Specifically ask your lawyers to evaluate only for legal issues, the marketing teams only for messaging, etc. You can even make a little responsibilities table at the top of the doc.

People are busy, so they are generally very happy with a narrower remit that lets them give just their part the thumbs up without having to weigh in on everything else.

3. Own the process

Think like an owner. No matter how many people get involved, it’s YOUR responsibility to deliver something that is coherent. That means you can’t be afraid to reject input and suggestions, or rewrite things so that it’s clear. Be polite but firm. And don’t let comments sit in the doc unresolved for too long. Open comments make people feel more comfortable adding their own - so your challenges multiply!

4. Ask for help

Even if you’re holding the pen, it doesn’t mean you have to be an expert at everything. Invite feedback from others - maybe a colleague who has written similar memos before, or someone who understands what a good launch page looks like for a new product.

Just make sure you’ve set the parameters above for your other reviewers. That way, having a few trusted people give you feedback on the piece as a whole won’t cause a stampede of suggestions you can’t use.

Need an extra cook to help with something you’re writing? Just hit reply and we’ll be happy to take a quick look!

Answering this question can help you create the best version of your content.

If you’re giving a speech or presentation, your work is to “write for the ear”. If you’re writing a memo or blog post that your coworkers will read, your work is to “write for the eye”. 

Knowing the difference can help make sure you’re communicating to your audience as effectively as possible. 

Eye, meet left brain

When we’re “writing for the eye” we communicate with readers in a linear way. This type of writing mostly triggers a logical and analytical response - what we colloquially refer to as “left brain”.

This is the most common type of writing most of us do at work. A great rule of thumb when writing for the eye is to borrow journalism’s famous inverted pyramid.

We start with the lead. Our communication should begin with the most newsworthy piece of information and recap associated key details. After the lead, comes the body of the text. Here we provide the reader with additional information like context, background, precise data, or evidence. Finally, we wrap up with the tail, saving items that are interesting - but not essential - until the end. 

In this format, we should keep our words simple, our sentences short, and our tense active.

There’s one important caveat to using this pyramid at work. Unlike a news story, we should follow the tail with a clear conclusion or call to action for our colleagues.

Ear, meet right brain 

When we’re “writing for the ear”, we have to quickly grab the attention of listeners with inspirational or personal elements. When speaking, we communicate in a more direct way, often triggering some feeling or emotion - a classic “right-brain” response.

We can disregard the inverted pyramid rule when writing for the ear. Instead of moving from the most important details to least important, the introduction and conclusion become more essential than ever.

We call this "signposting". By highlighting key points in the beginning and the end, you help the listening audience internalise your argument and follow the structure of your talk.

In a spoken format, we can also use speechwriting tricks to put additional emphasis (and focus listener attention) where we want it. Things like anaphora, floating opposites, and triads can all be employed to great effect when you’re writing for the ear.   

You can also get away with a bit more when speaking. You can use contractions to make your speech more natural. You can round your numbers or data points, rather than being precise. You can even build to a rhetorical flourish in your closing section.

Wait, what about my slide deck?

In many companies the powerpoint or slide deck has morphed from being a presentation tool (delivered in concert with a speech) into the final communication itself. Slide decks are shared with graphs and bulleted lists of text, while readers are left to figure out how to connect the visual aids with the scant descriptions.

Is this format for the eye or the ear? If you recognise this situation, consider your primary audience. If you’re presenting the topic on a team call (but will share a link after), then you’re really writing for the ear. If you’re hitting send as soon as you finish your slides and your coworkers are left to read it by themselves, you’re writing for the eye.

Next time you make a slide deck that has no complementary spoken presentation, see if you can just write for the eye. Map the contents into a document, blog post, or memo. Forcing yourself to write a narrative this way may even help you get clearer on what you’re saying.

If it’s good enough for Jeff Bezos, maybe there’s something to it (more on that in a later post).

Humor in work communication is not about being the class clown, but making you a more memorable and effective communicator. This happens in two key ways.

Engendering memory

When was the last time you laughed at work? Do you remember?

If you have an association of laughing at work with remembering something that would otherwise have left your prefrontal cortex in mere moments, you’ve discovered something educators have known for a long time.

Laughter is one of the most effective tools for capturing attention and making something more memorable.

Classroom comedy can improve student performance by reducing anxiety, boosting participation, and increasing students' motivation to focus on the material.

In other words, if they’re laughing, they’re learning. Finding a way to weave a joke into your next presentation will make sure people remember what you say. 

Creating levity

Laughing at work isn’t all about setups and punchlines. It’s about lightening the mood.

When we make people laugh with what is otherwise expected to be a serious or dry topic, we create a moment of shared fun. This does two things. 

First, it balances the stress and sobriety of work. It encourages creative thinking, engages people, and shows it’s safe to be yourself. That equals an environment where people can perform their best.

Second, for the speaker, it shows humanity and authenticity. Studies have found witty teachers are perceived to be more competent communicators and more responsive to students' needs. Similarly, leaders with a sense of humor are more motivating and admired.

Knocking ‘em dead

If you don't consider yourself funny, you might be thinking this is a recipe for disaster. But, we know humor helps people pay attention, learn, and creates a bond with your audience. How can you make it deliver for you? 

1. Remember, you’re not a comedian. Humor in work communication isn’t just about eliciting laughs - it’s about cultivating joy and connection. Don’t try out stand up material - instead maybe go for a company inside joke, some self-deprecation, or maybe even a Dad joke.

2. Keep it timely and complementary. Humor should come at the right point in your talk. Beginning and endings are always a safe bet - so is just before (or after) a major point. Remember not to distract from the main thrust of your talk or presentation. We’re not going for Michael Scott, so make sure it’s relevant to the subject matter. It goes without saying that it should be appropriate for work.

3. Read the room. Make sure that people are actually ready to laugh! Are you delivering bad news or talking about a difficult topic? Then a joke is probably not the right tactic. Similarly, if you’re talking to an audience from around the world with cultural differences or differing languages, then a joke might make people feel awkward rather than connected. Remember, the goal isn’t laughs, but putting folks at ease. 

I’ll leave you with a compilation of my favorite comedian to get your funny bone buzzing. 

Michelangelo had just finished David, one of his greatest masterpieces. Lots of people came to see it and congratulate him. A Bishop approached him and asked, “Michelangelo, how did you ever create such a sublime work of art from a block of marble?” 

To which Michelangelo replied, “Oh it was easy. I just chipped away everything that didn’t look like David.”  

This story tells us something valuable about the process of creating: it’s often about stripping away the nonessential. This is especially important in business writing and communication. Your audience expects clarity: that means easy-to-understand, well-structured, actionable prose that they can read or skim if they don’t have time. Bonus points if you can entertain people in the process - everyone is a tap or two away from Instagram at all times. You’re competing with everything for people’s attention.

Clarity doesn’t happen by accident. Like Michelangelo, you usually get there by chipping away the excess. This is obviously easier said than done! None of us is Michelangelo, and when you’re writing something, everything feels important. 

Here’s one of my favorite techniques for getting to clarity. The next time you need to write a memo, or presentation or sales pitch, do this first. Write a 250 word summary. Then 100 words. Then 50 words.

My all-time favorite example of a clear mission statement is from SpaceX: 

Making humanity multiplanetary. Building on the achievements of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is working on a next generation of fully reusable launch vehicles that will be the most powerful ever built, capable of carrying humans to Mars and other destinations in the solar system. 

Crystal clear what they want to do. Exciting. Inspiring. All in just 46 words! 

This technique works because compression often yields clarity. 250 words is like a roomy sweater you wear around on a lazy Sunday afternoon. But 100 words is like a business suit. Much tighter, and you’ll be forced to trim a lot to squeeze in. And 50 words is more like a business speedo. You’re down to the essence. And you have what I joke is a “Silicon Valley elevator pitch” - which has to be superfast and to the point since it’s basically a giant suburb with huge office parks and buildings that are only two stories high.

The beauty of this exercise is that the tangible word limit forces you to be really clear about what you want to say. Oftentimes we start writing a presentation without knowing what we really want to say. But if you do this three-step process at the beginning, you begin with a 50-word synopsis. It’s then much easier to build out.

Give it a shot and let us know how you get on. Happy to take a look at anything you come up with - just hit reply!

We’ve tired of attempts to recreate in-person interactions, but even when the pandemic is over remote work is going to play some part of our future. Our communication now has to be prepared for anywhere from a few, to a few thousand, of our close and distant colleagues. 

There’s a better strategy for this reality than scheduling another Zoom meeting. It’s learning how to “write for remote”.

Good remote communication is crucial for a distributed team. Whether you’re going back to the office post-vaccine or permanently working from home, there’s three key lessons you should keep in mind for how to communicate in a post-pandemic world.

Slack-ify your writing (yes, emojis)

Using images in communication is fundamental to capturing attention. In addition to conveying information visually, images can set the tone of communication and express the mood and feelings of the speaker - things that are hard to do with just text. 

Graphs and charts are good visual tools, but so are emojis. Emojis grab attention, show personality, and are authentic.

The key is to use them casually, not that often, and in the right context. You don’t want someone reading 🙏 and wondering if you meant “pray” or “high five”. You may read 🤔 as “thinking” but others might find it questioning or skeptical. Even something as banal as a smile (🙂) can apparently be passive-aggressive. If in doubt, double check.

Think of emojis like slang - when you use them correctly and in small doses - it builds connection and authenticity. 

Dr Wiki (or, how i learned to stop worrying and love Confluence)

If you work in a global business, chances are someone far away can’t join your next important Zoom meeting. They might watch a recording if they find time, but it’s even better if they have an option to simply read an overview of the topics covered. It’s better than keeping the playback tab open for a week and never watching the video because you ran out of time.

Using your company’s wiki for meeting notes is an easy way to let people get a quick summary of what was discussed, debated, and decided. Sharing notes this way goes hand in hand with blogging about team developments, all-hands meetings, and trusty email to building a culture of transparency and open information flows in a remote world. 

Whatever system you use, having a template for documentation makes it easier for people to follow. For the writer, it also helps introduce some rigor to your thinking and means it doesn't always feel like you're starting from scratch. The Confluence templates from Atlassian are quite good and cover most use cases.

Pay attention to feedback

Consciously or not, most of us are attuned to body language. In person, we can tell how a talk is landing in the room. Furrowed brows convey concern or skepticism, while phones in hands means your delivery is flat.

In remote teams, we mostly lose these human cues. But we ignore how our teammates react to our communication at our own peril. 

Written words leave room for interpretation and misinterpretation can affect morale and engagement.

So, pay attention to the feedback signals you do get. If comments on, or reactions to, your post suggest worry or skepticism, talk to the person directly and leave a public reply summarising your response. Spending ten minutes on a video call with a colleague and noting this publicly can often clear up what would otherwise cause tension.

Business communication is like that for knowledge workers. Regardless of how good you are or how much you enjoy it, you have to communicate if you want to accomplish anything in your career. You’re in the race, like it or not. 

The good news is that you can tweak what you’re doing and get better with less effort. Sometimes dramatically so. 

I think about these little tweaks a lot - what is the smallest thing a busy person like you can do differently to get better results when communicating? Using anaphora is one. The rule of three is another. Stack enough small changes together and you’ve got something big.

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The power of stories

One of my favorite little tweaks is the use of “tiny stories.” Basically, anytime you would describe something (“telling” your audience about it), you can use a tiny story instead to achieve more resonance with your audience and keep them interested in what you’re saying (“showing”).

Stories work because:

• They trigger an emotional response. We more easily remember emotionally charged content.

• They make abstract issues more relatable. Stories have a main character. That gives us someone to root for, even if we don’t know anything about the specific challenge they are facing.

• They humanize the person telling the story (aka you). People want to connect with people, so this matters.

• They show instead of telling. In life, showing always beats telling. Stories are probably the easiest way to do that.

Using tiny stories effectively

A tiny story is still a story. That means it needs a beginning, a middle and an end. A really basic formula for a good story is:

So you just need three things and you can do it all in a few sentences. 

• A person we can root for. This could be a customer, , a person you’re recommending, a cute little dog that’s trying to get home, etc.

• Tension caused by some challenge they need to figure out. Any story without tension will sound boring. The challenge can be big (“I need to destroy this ring in the fires of Mordor”) or small (“I want to make a sandwich but I’m out of bread.” Actually, come to think of it that’s a big challenge.)

• Resolution caused by the person successfully grappling with the challenge. The resolution, which is some action a person takes, is how you show the thing you were telling about. For example, if we want the story to show how Ned is kind, the resolution is the part where he does a good deed (e.g. “Ned went out of his way to help a stranded motorist call a tow truck.”)

Putting it to work

Explaining why someone is great:

• Telling: “When it comes to making sure our clients are happy, no one is more dedicated than Rosie. She always goes the extra mile, and she has brought more new business to the firm than anyone else.”  

• Showing: “One busy morning, a stressed-out client knocked on Rosie’s door. He didn’t understand his tax return. She spent two hours with him going through it line by line. One year later, he’s moved all of his business to our firm.”

Launching a new product:

• Telling: “I’m super excited that we’re launching Schedulr, a new feature that auto-schedules your meetings to save you time. It takes all of your messages and turns them into a series of tidy meetings with agendas.”

• Showing: “Let me tell you about my friend Matt. Every morning, he gets that same sense of dread when he opens his computer to a sea of urgent messages and pings. Last week, he tried the new Schedulr plugin. He clicked it and - POOF! - most of the messages disappeared.”    

Celebrating a team win:

• Telling: “A huge congrats to the sales team for hitting 125% of their target this quarter. That’s some serious dedication!”

• Showing: “When Jane told me she thought her team could beat their quarterly number, I nodded politely - but I had my doubts. It was the ambitious target we ever set! But they came up with a really smart way to share their workload, and they absolutely crushed the number. 125%! I’m a believer!”

When in doubt, remember that specificity is credibility!

Help me help you

Want to brainstorm on how to use tiny stories effectively in your own work? Have a question or something not clear? Just hit reply and we can work it through together. Happy storytelling!

The past few months one of the projects occupying a lot of my time was TransferWise Mission Days. It’s our biannual company conference. For me, a huge part of getting ready for the event is spending time with speakers helping them hone their presentations. 

Reflecting after we finished, I remembered a lesson I had forgot. Knowing how to give (good) feedback is just as important as knowing how to communicate yourself. 

We’re on a mission to make you better business communicators, but that’s only part of the story. We all spend more time reading and listening to other people’s work than we do preparing and delivering our own. The truth is that communication is incomplete without feedback. Giving feedback is the first step to establishing trust and creating dialogue with your colleagues - and it’s just as likely to help us in our careers.

Unfortunately, most of us are terrible at delivering feedback (or avoid it entirely). If a topic is unengaging, it’s much easier to switch off our brain, reduce cognitive load, and do something else with our time (ahem, doomscroll Twitter). When we do bother to pull together notes, it’s usually not that useful because we aren’t practiced at the task. 

And so, even though most people give a perfunctory nod to the importance of receiving feedback, it’s often overlooked or ignored. 

But if you can get over the initial hump of writing down constructive thoughts and structure your notes well, your feedback can be just as powerful as your own communication. 

So, let’s break down what you need to do it well. 

Listen, then speak

The first reason feedback is hard is because it requires actually listening. Most of us don’t really do this. 

We’re all (hopefully) taught not to interrupt others, but that is really only the beginning. The tenets of active listening are prerequisites for giving good feedback and would not be out of place in a therapist’s office.

1. Be present (this means not interrupting with your mouth but also your mind - there are some great tips on being work-present in this thread)

2. Ignore the fear of being wrong when asking questions

3. Don’t speak out of desire for validation or an urge to impress

4. Practice genuine curiosity 

Make your words count

When you actively listen you hear what the person said, rather than what you interpret. This sets you up to summarise what you’ve heard (do this as close to real time as possible). 

Here’s a quick overview of the feedback framework I try to follow when sending notes to my colleagues.

1. What did you hear?

   Let the speaker know the key messages you took from their speech, memo, or slide deck. If you had to summarise it to someone else in three sentences, what would you say? Ask the person if this is what they intended to communicate. Regardless of the answer, telling someone what part of their communication “landed” is a useful starting point for any feedback.

2. What resonated?

   Tell them what about those same three messages resonated with you? Why did you remember those points over others? Was it because they provoked an emotional response? Was it because it was clearer (in relative terms) than the rest of the topic? Did they have a visual that drove the point home? The section above lets them know what worked; this part gives the speaker insight into what tactics they employed that were compelling.

3. Where to cut?

   No one likes to see folks looking at their phones (or turning their cameras off on Zoom). Tell the speaker what parts of their narrative were extraneous. What sections didn’t add to the argument? What parts were confusing or unclear (and why)?

4. What did you do next?

   All speakers have a reason for what they’re communicating. Almost always they want you to take some action - even if they can’t articulate it. Tell them what their words inspired you to do. If the answer is nothing, this is useful feedback. Knowing what their talk made you do - or not do - is a useful barometer for the overall effectiveness of the talk, clarity of message, and how clear and motivating their conclusion or call to action was.

It should go without saying that feedback should always be respectful and never personal. Constructive feedback is predicated on telling the truth without blame or judgment.

Once you start actively listening and build up your comfort in giving feedback, the process becomes easier. If your notes stays thoughtful and actionable, they will be well received. Anyone giving a talk is happy to hear that people were listening enough to take the time to pass on their reaction. 

As you near the end of your presentation, you have one more chance to land your point to your remote colleagues. It’s time to end well.

Whether you’re in person or remote, a strong ending is one of the most powerful tools in your communications arsenal.

So, how can you make sure you land your final point when your audience’s energy is at its nadir? Let’s look at three examples - in order of increasing difficulty.

Repeat, repeat, repeat (and call to action)

One of the oldest tricks in the book is to close how you started. There is an old adage for the structure of a speech (sometimes misattributed to Aristotle) that is tried but true advice.

Tell them what you are going to tell them

Tell them

Tell them what you told them 

This can be an effective formula for simply conveying information. But more often, you need your audience to take some form of action with the information you’ve just provided. Without creating momentum, you risk a “So what?” reaction.

A call to action can be simple and direct. You can suggest your audience talk about this with their teams in planning or lean more towards inspiration around a common mission or purpose. Either way, make sure to consider what you want your audience to do and push them in that direction.

Start (and end) with the personal 

If you are comfortable getting personal, and your presentation subject allows you to do this in an authentic way, then ending your session with a personal anecdote (that relates to the topic) is a solid way to elicit empathy from your audience and leave a lasting impression. 

Need an example? If you’re launching or describing a product or feature that solves a real problem you’ve had - explain how you faced the problem in your life and how the solution worked for you. This lets your audience picture themselves in the same position. Often the strongest founding stories of companies are built on such personal examples.

A denouement

Resolution is an incredibly powerful tool in eliciting a reaction from your audience. Humans are primed for seeking harmony. That’s why the catchiest songs start and end on the tonic note of a song’s key and why archetypal stories have a definitive ending (whether good or bad).

To end your talk with a resolution, you have to introduce some form of tension in the beginning of your narrative.

You can make a bold claim at the beginning and promise you’ll close with an explanation. Try beginning with a rhetorical question and provide an answer at the end. Does the setting allow for humour? Make a call back to the memorable joke you inserted in your opening act.

This technique requires practice and foresight. But when it’s employed effectively, resolving tension that you have purposefully introduced makes for a delightful ending.

Whatever technique you choose to employ, make sure you don’t end your presentation or speech with a case study. Case studies work well to provide context and give relatable examples in your middle act, but are weak endings.

Wishing you all a peaceful, restorative, and safe holiday break and new year.

Whether you’re writing a short email update to your boss or pitching a new idea for a business, you face the same challenge: in a world full of content and ideas, why should people pay attention to you? 

One surefire way is to make them feel something. Why not tell a little story? Here’s a simple and powerful formula that can help:

“WHY” - “WHAT” - “IMPACT”

(Once upon a time, there was an important challenge. The hero (aka you) did something to overcome it. And as a result, everyone lived happily ever.)

In a nutshell, you hook people in with a clear and compelling explanation of why you did what you did. You give a short summary of what you actually did with an emphasis on novelty. And you end with an honest and contextual look at what was achieved. 

Start with why. This is the most important part. Most people won’t know anything about your work, but that won’t matter if you can orient them toward the problem you’re solving or the goal you’re trying to achieve. If you can highlight a “why” that your audience cares about, suddenly they’ll care about your work, too. Put yourself in their shoes.

Move to what. You need much less detail here than you think. The trick is to use this section as more of a teaser. Highlight unique or unconventional things that you did. More does not mean better or more impressive. People who need the details can come to you, or you can link to a deeper dive.

End with impact. We have a natural tendency to present our work in the best possible light. But the trick is to keep this part honest and contextual. Let’s say you achieved 10% revenue growth in Q4. Sounds impressive on its own, but less so if revenue generally grows between 8-11% each quarter. Providing the context up front is what makes people comfortable spreading the word on your behalf. 

What does this look like in practice? Let’s use the formula to write a quick overview about something that’s close to home… this newsletter!

(Start with why:) Regardless of what you do for a living, you will greatly accelerate your career trajectory if you have strong communication skills. What if there were an easy and fun way to get better at it? (Move to what:) Enter The Story is the Strategy, a short, weekly newsletter with actionable tips and free one-on-one coaching from two marketing comms experts in the tech industry. (End with impact:) Our goal is to help thousands of people make real and rapid progress toward becoming noticeably better business communicators in ways that help their careers.   

Thanks for reading. Want us to reframe one of your pieces using this framework? Send it to us and we’ll help. Or come speak to us for free one-on-one coaching: Nick’s office hours and Patrick’s.

I’ll share a secret about myself since this is the first time I’m landing in your inbox.

In the midst of the pandemic and an enthralling election, The West Wing has been one of my guilty pleasures. In my opinion, it has everything you need for quarantine watching: years of character development, drama and levity in equal parts, and storylines that are compelling, fanciful, and (somehow) emotionally relatable.

Watching the series reminded me that Toby Ziegler is one of my favourite television characters. Not just because of his role as the understated voice of the progressive left in Aaron Sorkin’s fictional, liberal universe. But, because his character is the wellspring of the show’s earnest belief in the power of oratory. 

In Season 2, Episode 16, Toby talks about speech writing to a security guard who’s been assigned to shadow him as he speaks to a group of WTO protesters. It all sounds so quaint in 2020.

Here’s the salient part of their conversation.

Toby Ziegler: “Food is cheaper! Clothes are cheaper. Steel is cheaper. Cars are cheaper. Phone service is cheaper. You feel me building a rhythm here? That’s because I’m a speech writer – I know how to make a point.”

Officer Rhonda Sachs: “Toby…”

Toby Ziegler: “It lowers prices, it raises income. You see what I did with ‘lowers’ and ‘raises’ there?”

Officer Rhonda Sachs: “Yes.”

Toby Ziegler: “It’s called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites, and now you end with the one that’s not like the others. Ready? Free trade stops wars. Heh, and that’s it. Free trade stops wars! And we figure out a way to fix the rest. One world, one peace – I’m sure I’ve seen that on a sign somewhere.”

In a few lines of dialogue, Toby gives us three key lessons for how we can create and hold listener attention. This works remarkably well for public speaking - whether you’re Martin Sheen playing President Jed Bartlet or walking through a quarterly plan with your team.

1. Building to a point, through repetition

Patrick wrote about this a while ago. The Greek word for this trick is anaphora. By repeating a form (often in a series of three), you immediately force people’s ears to prick up.

It works well in openings or closings, but rarely in between. Need to set context, pique attention, or conclude without sounding trite or redundant? See if you can employ anaphora without cringing.

2. “Floating opposites” (more accurately, chiasmus)

Toby suggests that his use of antonymical verbs (“lowers” and “raises”) is called floating opposites - but it’s just a simplified form of a literary device called chiasmus.

Chiasmus is a form where the grammar of one phrase is inverted in the following phrase. The mirror structure of the device is a simple way to add emphasis.

The most famous use of this might be John F. Kennedy’s imploration - “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Much like anaphora, it’s tempting to overuse chiasmus as it is easy to construct and pleasing to the ear. To me, it is best used in the manner Toby employs it - as a penultimate headline. 

Is the second to last slide in your presentation lacking? Need to rouse the room before you come back to your final point? See if you can insert a chiasmus without sounding sophomoric.

3. End with something that’s not like the others

It’s very easy in business communication to land on a conclusion that is both obvious and ineffectual. How many presentations have you listened to that tritely summed up the main points or ended with no call to action?

How to end well is worth a post of its own. But, for now, consider that ending a passage, talk, or presentation with a turn of phrase that’s different to the rest of your points can inspire action and create consensus. 

This doesn’t mean you should end your talk on a totally random point. Rather, find a way to deliver the key message of your conclusion in a way that makes it stand out from the crowd. By showing what it’s not, you make your point even stronger. 

Want more thoughts on how to use chiasmus or end a talk? Reply to this email or connect with me on Twitter.

If you want more help, Patrick and I are both offering free in-person communications help. If you need help punching up a draft presentation, want to know if your pitch deck works, or anything else - feel free to book some time with me (NYC evenings are open) or with Patrick.