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![“[C]haracter-driven stories with
emotional content result in a better
understanding of the key points a
speaker wishes to make and enable
better recall of these points weeks
later.”
Paul J. Zak, Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/storiesallthewaydown-160424213717/85/It-s-Stories-All-the-Way-Down-Spectrum-2016-7-320.jpg)
![English speakers abroad
[A]broad they discover that their own
English renders them
incomprehensible to colleagues and
business partners.
Spencer Hazel, Why native English speakers fail to be
understood in English – and lose out in global business](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/storiesallthewaydown-160424213717/85/It-s-Stories-All-the-Way-Down-Spectrum-2016-56-320.jpg)
Uploaded byMark Baker
It's Stories All the Way Down: Spectrum 2016
The document discusses the importance of storytelling in business communication and how it enhances understanding and recall of information. It highlights issues related to language and communication barriers within organizations, emphasizing that shared stories are crucial for effective collaboration. The author argues that concrete language and stories can overcome the 'curse of knowledge' that often impairs clarity in organizational strategies.
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It's Stories All the Way Down: Spectrum 2016
- 1. IT’S STORIES ALLTHE WAY DOWN Mark Baker 2015
- 2. It’s Stories Allthe Way Down Mark Baker Author: Every Page is Page One: Topic-based Writing for Technical Communication and the Web
- 3. Storytelling and Purpose “Theidea of “purpose” has swept the corporate world. … But activating purpose is impossible without storytelling. … Individuals must learn to connect their drives to the organization’s purpose and to articulate their story to others.” John Coleman, Use Storytelling to Explain Your Company’s Purpose, HBR
- 4. What we sellis the ability for a 43- year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him. – Harley Davidson Exec (apocryphal?)
- 5. Power of storyin business “Facts and figures and all the rational things that we think are important in the business world actually don’t stick in our minds at all,” …. But stories create “sticky” memories by attaching emotions to things that happen. How to Tell a Great Story, Carolyn O'Hara, HBR
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- 7. “[C]haracter-driven stories with emotionalcontent result in a better understanding of the key points a speaker wishes to make and enable better recall of these points weeks later.” Paul J. Zak, Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling
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- 13. Problem widely recognized Everysingle person working on the web today has dealt with a situation where the pain with no name has reared its ugly head, leaving disinformation and misinformation in its wake. Consider: “Our marketing team has a different language than the technology team.” “Our users don’t understand the language of our business.” “The way this is labeled or classified is keeping users from finding or understanding it.” “We have several labels for the same thing and it gets in the way when discussing things.” Abby Covert, The Pain With No Name, A List Apart
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- 16. Taxonomy to theRescue? Agreement on terms = clear communication Or does it?
- 17. Not enough wordsto go round English: up to a million words(?) Average English speaker active vocabulary 20,000 words passive vocabulary 40,000 words Everyday writing first 25 words are used in 33% first 100 words appear in 50% first 1,000 words are used in 89% See: http://everypageispageone.com/2015/08/04/the-economy-of-language-or-why-we-argue-about-words/
- 18. Words are likephyllo pastry CCBY-SA3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=174342
- 19. How do wetalk about so much stuff with so few words? We tell stories.
- 20. Stories made upof stories Algorithms make mistakes all the time. Just think about auto-correction on your iPhone, the recommendations on Netflix, or the coupons automatically printed at Kmart’s checkout. Just this past week, a fraud detection algorithm incorrectly blocked my ATM card while I was traveling in Germany, despite having called in a travel notification before the trip. KAISER FUNG, ANDREW GELMAN, Why Consumers Should Care About Apple’s War on Big Data
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- 22. Words evoke stories What picture pops into your head when you hear: “See Spot Run”
- 23. A spot ofpaint running?
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- 25. Fun with Dickand Jane?
- 27. Words evoke stories “Imet a man at the poker game and he gave me his card.”
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- 30. Words evoke stories “See Spot run.” Does not mention “dog” Does not mention “Dick and Jane” “I met a man at the poker game and he gave me his card.” Does not mention “business card” Does suggest playing card by association with “Poker” Yet we know that is not what it means
- 31. Words evoke stories “Clickthe OK button”
- 33. From telling to assumingthe story Move the mouse over the surface of the desk until the screen cursor is over the button labeled OK on your screen. Press and release the left mouse button with your finger. You will hear a click and the dialog box will disappear. Click the OK button. Click OK.
- 34. But “Click” doesnot tell the whole story anymore Robert Siebens Experienced Technical Writer at Thomson Reuters Alternative to "Click" in Documentation? Now that our readers are looking at our Help in a variety of screen types, what are you all doing with the word "Click"? Are you still using it in single-sourced Help that appears in both touch and non-touch screens? Are some of you migrating to "Select" as a word that captures both a "Click" and a "Tap"? Other ideas? Post on LinkedIn
- 35. Suggestions tap select,choose But “double select” does not work And select is for options, not buttons select with a long press Why not just “long press” press
- 36. A generic alternative Mark Baker: The interfaces in question are all still point-and-press interfaces. All that is changed is what we point with and how we press. "Press" would work as a device independent way of giving point-and- press instructions.
- 37. Why is it“Click”?
- 38. Learned stories SteveArrants: I have to disagree about click. It IS, to the end user, the action. After reading it, learning it, using it for so long as an action (Click OK, Click Close, Click Options and then double-click Set.) that's how they understand it. As far as most users are concerned, the sound of click is feedback that they've done it.
- 39. Words invoked learnedstories “Click” names the feedback, not the action. But once learned, “click” now means the action. And we internalize the story and forget it is a story. Recognition becomes instantaneous. Until we try to find an analog for touch interfaces!
- 40. How to wordsattach to stories? Why is click the word that invokes this story? Why pick the feedback sound? Theory: We choose the most concrete word that is unambiguous in context
- 41. Why not Pressoriginally? Ian Saunders: To me, "press" is what you do on physical keyboards, "click" is for mice, and either "touch" or "tap" for touchscreens. So, I don't think that "Press" is device independent - it always refers to a physical key or button.
- 42. One word, onemeaning Simplified Technical English says, use oil as noun, a not verb Don’t use: “Oil the bearing” Use: “Put oil on the bearing”
- 43. Put oil onthe bearing ByBarbetorte-Ownwork,CCBY-SA3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15672341
- 44. Put oil onthe table ByNerijp-Ownwork,CCBY-SA3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5145735
- 45. Put oil onthe shopping list
- 46. How do weknow? Put oil on the bearing means the fluid Put oil on the table means the bottle Put oil on the shopping list means the word Because each phrase invokes a different story in which “oil” plays a different role
- 47. By Neil T- originally posted to Flickr as Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5816068
- 48. The efficiency oflanguage We don’t need to unpack the stories we refer to We recognize the references instantly Stories feel like facts Without this facility, language would be very inefficient
- 49. But what happens whenour audience does not share our stories?
- 50. Stories shape thinking Wordsare impactful. They may not break your bones, as the saying goes, but they do guide the way we all think, debate, decide and act. The On-Demand, Sharing And Gig Economies Never Existed, So Stop Pretending They Did, Matt Bencke, TechCrunch
- 51. Sharing economy Suggestsa story of altruistic communal living ‘The “sharing economy” term was naive at best, destructive at worst. Very few people share stuff for free.’ -- Matt Bencke
- 52. Gig Economy Suggestthe story of a struggling band ‘The bias promoted by the term “gig” is particularly destructive because it confuses politicians’ -- Matt Bencke
- 53. Taxonomy can’t fixthis Taxonomy tries to fix meanings to words But words work together to evoke stories Same words in different combinations evoke different stories Same words evoke different stories in different people
- 54. CC BY-SA 3.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=372117 Medical taxonomy allows doctors to communicate clearly But they have to go to medical school to learn the stories
- 55. Losing business When anAmerican manager in Japan cannot understand why his Japanese staff will not give him the “ballpark figure” he has demanded, this breakdown in communication can lead to a real disintegration in workplace relations. And the underlying feelings of mistrust are mutual. The inability of the travelling native English speaker to refrain from homeland idiosyncrasies, subtextual dexterity and cultural in-jokes has been found to result in resentment and suspicion. Spencer Hazel, Why native English speakers fail to be understood in English – and lose out in global business
- 56. English speakers abroad [A]broad they discover that their own English renders them incomprehensible to colleagues and business partners. Spencer Hazel, Why native English speakers fail to be understood in English – and lose out in global business
- 57. No shared stories= no shared language But it is not just “idiosyncrasies, subtextual dexterity and cultural in-jokes” It is stories Foreign customers and partners may speak English, but they don’t share all of our stories
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- 59. ‘Many sensible strategiesfail to drive action because executives formulate them in sweeping, general language. “Achieving customer delight!” “Becoming the most efficient manufacturer!” “Unlocking shareholder value!” One explanation for executives’ love affair with vague strategy statements relates to a phenomenon called the curse of knowledge. Top executives have had years of immersion in the logic and conventions of business, so when they speak abstractly, they are simply summarizing the wealth of concrete data in their heads. But frontline employees, who aren’t privy to the underlying meaning, hear only opaque phrases. As a result, the strategies being touted don’t stick.’ Chip and Dan Heath, The Curse of Knowledge, HBR
- 60. Curse of Knowledge The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads better- informed parties to find it extremely difficult to think about problems from the perspective of lesser-informed parties. -- Wikipedia
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- 65. Two types ofconfusion Your words evoke no stories for the reader The reader knows they are confused Your words evoke different stories for the reader The reader does not know they are confused Or they know of discover it through a wider incongruity
- 66. By Robert Möst- Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1754262 The curse of knowledge strikes fast!
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- 68. Stories build apicture Dave went to the store.
- 69. By Joe Mabel,CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2666267
- 70. Adding detail refinesthe picture Dave went to the store to buy milk.
- 71. By User:Joerite, CCBY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19566325
- 72. More detail refinesfurther Dave went to the store to buy milk because the baby was crying.
- 73. CC BY-SA 3.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=808069
- 74. Refine to removeambiguity Everyone’s picture is different. We keep refining our story until the differences are incidental to the story we are trying to tell. As far as we can tell… Because we can’t know for sure what associations others might have to lead them astray
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- 77. By Binette228 -Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31888310 Stories are fractal
- 78. Fractal expansion ofstories does not stop when we hit facts, but when we hit common stories based on common experience
- 79. Facts are just storieswe agree on.
- 80. Stories Defeat theCurse “Concrete language and stories defeat the curse of knowledge and make executives’ strategy statements stickier. As a result, all the members of an organization can share an understanding of the strategies and a language for discussing them.” Chip and Dan Heath, The Curse of Knowledge, HBR,
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- 82. Keys All factsare stories All communication is an exchange of stories Stories are made up of stories Be conscious of the curse of knowledge Figure out what stories the reader knows, and how the express them Use hypertext to connect stories
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- 84. Questions? Contact information Mark Baker Analecta Communications Inc. +1 226 808 1098 mbaker@analecta.com Twitter: @mbakeranalecta http://analecta.com http://everypageispageone.com