From problem to possibility
I was working with an organisation that believed they were unique and, in some ways, they were but they had the same issues as other organisations it’s just that everything was at an 11. In fact, it would often take me a day or so to get in the headspace of the organisation, and I had to keep reminding myself of where I was so that the chaos would make sense.
One Monday morning I showed up at 8am to start working with a senior leader that was running a major area of the of the operation, and she said “I’m really sorry, I’ve been called into an urgent meeting that I can’t get out of, but I need your help. Something has happened offshore, and we have to do a delicate comms. It has the potential to go off the rails, and I suggested that our HR and Comms person speak with you is that ok?
I said sure and made my way up to level 24 to speak with a person I’ve never met about a problem I didn’t know. I eventually found a lady in a corner office who introduced herself as Kirsty.
Kirsty: Hi Mark. I’ve heard a bit about you and how you are helping leaders with challenging comms so I’m hoping you can help
with this problem”.
Mark: “Sure, how can I help?”
Kristy: “Someone’s killed a seal.”
Mark: “OK….”
Kirsty: “Someone has thrown something from the upper platform and struck the seal in the head, and it died. But that’s not the problem”
Kirsty went on to describe a series of subsequent events that involved multiple employees, ever deepening challenges and a situation where there was potential for union action, walk offs and a threat to EBA negotiations. She then asked, “What should we do?” What was clear to me was the problem isn’t the problem.
When trying to move from problem to possibility, there are 4 critical steps:
1. Identify the real problem
When something happens peoples, common response is fear based and they will focus on preventing a bad outcome. They will communicate factually and create a disconnect with audiences. This will often lead to creating the conditions for a bad outcome. The key is to focus on the outcome you want to create.
2. Understand all perspectives
We tend to focus on what we already think and then try to convince others. To achieve a great outcome, you need to get clarity on who your specific audiences are and understand the stories being told. You need to see the issues from their perspective and imagine what you would have to believe for them to be right. Then you can find the gaps in their stories and from here you can create a more constructive narrative.
3. Ask key questions that shift the narrative
Before you communicate ask yourself a series of questions to ensure you understand the real problem and various perspectives. Who is my audience? What does a great outcome look like? What are the stories being told from multiple perspectives? What would I need to believe for them to be right? What is the real problem from each perspective? Where are the gaps in their stories?
4. Create the simple story
Once you have clarity you can create a simple story to engage your audiences. It should not be a police report but rather follow What? So What? What now? It should have a brief context, highlight the challenges and clearly define the outcome. The key here is to make the story self-evident so there is nothing for your audience to challenge.
By taking this approach with Kirsty, there was no rebellion, the unions didn’t initiate industrial action, and we actually connected with a disconnected group. We showed we were on their side, and, in the end, we got a better outcome than if the incident never happened. We were able to go from problem to possibility, and it took us about an hour.
