legal sanity

As you know, I’m a big fan of Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen. In one of his latest posts, Garr poses a question about presentations that applies equally well to everyday business and personal communications. He asks: “What can you do to consciously reduce the nonessential?” In other words, how can we pare down our language and messages so that they’re “simple yet not watered down, trivialized, or compromised?”

Garr gives us a taste of this “elimination of the superfluous” by sharing the story of a fish monger who pares down the words on his store’s sign until he realizes that they’re entirely unnecessary - the store, by its very nature (and odor), speaks for itself. I really like this post and the accompanying comments because they highlight why story + simplicity can be powerful allies in our effort to make our communications memorable.

The importance of storytelling as a business tool is also the subject of a recent post at Mark Beese’s blog, Leadership for Lawyers. Beese cites a terrific Forbes.com article by leadership expert John Kotter titled The Power Of Stories. Kotter builds his piece around the central point that business leaders who understand the profound impact stories have on people and who “use this knowledge to make their organizations great” are the leaders “we admire and wish others would emulate.”

For more insight into storytelling for business success, check out Seth Godin’s blog post (and related Ode article) on How to tell a great story.