1: The year was 2022. Dave Prout was scrolling through Twitter when he saw a post by Sahil Bloom.

“Call your parents more often,” Sahil wrote, “they won’t be around forever. When you’re young and arrogant, death is a theoretical construct. Realize the people you love won’t be there forever. If your parents are 60 and you visit once a year, you may only see them 20 more times … continue reading

1: We have a tall task.  

Our goal is to persuade our audience to change behaviors and set out on a new course.

We begin by getting their attention. To do so, we go negative.

“Negative stories, questions, or challenges wake us up. They activate the reptilian brain, suggesting fight or flight,” writes Stephen Denning in The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative. 

What … continue reading

1: Define problem Analyze problem Recommend solution.

This sequence is the “normal” or “rational” way of communicating, Stephen Denning writes The Secret Language of Leadership. “It’s an appeal to reason—a model that has been the hallowed Western intellectual tradition ever since the ancient Greeks. . . And it works well enough when your aim is merely to pass on information to people who want to hear it.”

But what if … continue reading