By John Durante
Just as Tom Hanks one famously reminded us in the 1992 film A League of Their Own that “there’s no crying in baseball”, so too is there no authentic story to tell without first actively listening to those trying to tell it.
In developing StoryCraftingsm WordWrite has been repeatedly reminded of this fact. Today’s authentic, interactive, story “dialogue” with audiences does not start with marshalling facts and figures in a form that makes one’s point. While it might end there in telling an effective, compelling story, it starts by first understanding the world from the perspective of your audience.
In my career in marketing research I have had the good fortune to listen to thousands of people comprising an untold number of audiences. I have been professionally compensated to hear everything from audience preferences for news anchors with or without facial hair (silly), to how CEOs fire their vice presidents (insightful), to what parents seek from hospitals in providing rehab care to their drug-addicted teenage children (heartbreaking). These and dozens of other topics like them have been the grist for my storytelling mill.
Whether your professional “listening” takes the form of reliable one-to-one communication, data analysis, competitive reviews, communication audits, armchair “psychoanalysis” of your clients or like me, focus groups, there are dozens of techniques by which storytellers can actively listen. When you do listen — I mean really listen — you’ll find that audiences communicate richly about most topics with deep textures and subtlety of meaning. And all of this has tremendous value is crafting authentic stories.
The conventional story builder and business communicator can — no must — widely use active listening skills.
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John Durante is senior marketing associate for WordWrite Communications.
