Keeping it Simple in a High-Stakes World
“To place before mankind the common sense of the subject; in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent.”
That’s the answer.
The question was, “why do we need a Declaration of Independence in the first place?”
Thomas Jefferson was pretty good with words.
The stakes were high at that time. And this.
And it’s the same reason you need to take the time to consider and write down the reason you’re doing what you’re doing and why in the simplest terms you can come up with.
What are you doing?
Who is it for?
Why does it matter to them?
To get to the actionable core of it all takes time, focus, and most importantly, separation.
We all love shortcuts.
We all think what’s obvious to us is obvious to everyone.
But it’s not.
Your founder and visionary leader may have come up with the idea for what you’re doing. What you’re making. What you’re selling.
But as a visionary, s/he is always trying to answer “what’s next?” and as a result, often starts chasing shiny objects to far off and exotic destinations.
Your product team is buried in features and benefits and solving problems for existing customers. They’ve short-cutted themselves so far past the introduction, they’ve forgotten why new customers buy your stuff to begin with.
The sales team is driving hard to meet goals.
The marketing team is tip-toeing between their wide and varied stakeholders trying to deliver what they think each of them needs or wants, or is distracted by this week.
So who owns the simple answer?
A lot of the time… no one.
It’s not strategy. It’s not operations. It’s not sales. It’s not marketing.
It’s messaging.
What’s the message?
What’s the story?
And why does it mater to me?
So many times, I launch into my Story Session workshop with my clients from a place of them not really quite knowing what to expect. They have a pretty clear idea of what they want, but they’re not sure what to expect. And a lot of times, they’re wrong. Or in the end, surprised.
A lot of times, we come up with a ton of great content. A map of stuff to produce that will feed the content machine for 6 months, 9 months, 12 months or more.
Modularized messages that support the product, the service, each pillar of the organization. Messaging designed to bring you into the consideration set. To make you stand out. To convince, cajole, capture. It’s all good stuff.
But the best compliment I’ve ever received.
It was surprising the first time, but it happens often.
Is when the head person, the leader, the founder, the visionary, comes up to me after we’re done and says, with almost embarrassing gratitude, something like…
“I’ve been searching desperately for that description, that phrase, that one word, for three years and this is the first time we’ve ever hit it right on the head.”
Most businesses, most teams, don’t have someone dedicated to clarifying the message.
Your in house are so dedicated to the specific jobs they’re doing… deep-diving into the particulars; delivering on KPIs; addressing customer needs; chasing the path into the future…
They forget to remember that what seems obvious to them is not obvious to others.
And it is so easy to lose focus on the WHY. Why you matter to the people who matter to you.
You need someone to focus in on the answer to the question.
To place before the people who matter to you, the common sense of your value; in terms so simple and obvious they can’t ignore how much they need you.