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Storylining FAQs

FUNDAMENTALS

Here are the most common questions we are asked about the fundamentals of storylining.

    WHY BUILD STORYLINES ?

    Why do I need a story?

    Why not just put up some slides and talk the audience through them?

    Presenting a coherent story ensures that you have thought through your ideas before you walk into the room to make your presentation. The act of creating the logical storyline also helps you think through your real purpose – the question – and what you want to walk away from the meeting with. Putting the time in up-front to prepare the story will make you not only more efficient overall, but more effective.

    It also makes it much easier for your audience to follow.

    Why use storylines?

    Using storylines helps you get better and faster results from your writing

    Many of us think to write, which is useful but also comes with inherent risks. For example, it is easy to become wedded to your writing rather than on the results you want to achieve from that writing. As one prominent Australian CEO said, it is easy to focus more on the writing itself than the thinking that underpins it.

    There are, however, techniques you can employ to help you focus on your thinking before you write and speed up your writing process. Here are three:

    1. Building storylines requires you to sort your ideas into a visual hierarchy, which makes it easier to identify what belongs where within the hierarchy than when working with written prose or PowerPoint charts

    2. Using a storyline helps you see not only what is a higher or lower order idea, but how the ideas at each level and sub level are logically related to each other

    3. Wrestling with and agreeing one-page storylines that outline your top level argument with your peers and project sponsor before you write, will save you time and lead to a better result.

    This way you can test your thinking before you become wedded to your document.

    Why do you use two different diagrams or storyline types?

    The diagrams remind you what form of logic you are using to tell your story.

    Each diagram form represents a different form of logic, either a grouping of ideas or a deductive argument.

    The grouping diagram visually reminds you that you are constructing a list of independent ideas that together aim to support your overarching conclusion.

    The deductive diagram visually reminds you that you are building a story with a series of three dependent ideas. The sideways connection of the boxes shows this interdependence.

    HOW TO BUILD STORYLINES

    Do I need to build my story from the top down?

    No, you can build either top down or bottom up, as long as you tell from the top down

    Stories can be created from the bottom up or from the top down. Stories are, however, told from the top down, beginning with the context, the trigger, the question and the answer before moving step by step to the details.

    Very often you will begin forming a grouping storyline at the bottom by sorting ideas into groups, to help identify the themes and messages within the idea set. This process enables you to work toward identifying the overarching answer, or governing idea, at the top of the storyline.

    Once this this bottom up clarification (or problem-solving) process is complete, you are ready to tell the story from the top down.

    How do I know if my storyline is complete?

    Apply the MECE (or NONG) test.

    This is a very useful test that is used in science and also applies to storylines.

    The technical term is MECE, which stands for Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive. This means that collectively the ideas in the storyline should exhaust the entire relevant universe of ideas set up by the overarching answer, and that those sub-ideas should mutually exclude each other.

    Simply put, we need to check whether there are any gaps in your story overall and between your ideas, and whether any of your ideas overlap each other. The acronym for this is NONG: no overlaps, no gaps.

    What should the executive summary include?

    A snapshot of your whole story

    The executive summary includes the introduction (the context, trigger and question) as well as the answer and an overview of your whole story that is structured to match the body of your story. For example:

    (Context) BigCo has been exploring ways to build its business outside Australia and (trigger) the exec team has identified three high potential options for the board to review.

    (Implied question: What are they?)

    1. Build on existing relationships across Asia Pacific to find new customers for our Australian designed and manufactured goods

    2. Contract with manufacturers in Asia Pacific to manufacture Australian designed products that we can then market to Asian, European and American markets

    3. Partner with SmartCo to manufacture and distribute Australian designed goods globally

    The strengths and weaknesses of each of these options will now be discussed in turn.

    How many sentences can I put into each idea box?

    One sentence per box

    Each idea box should include only one sentence, ideally one with 25 words or less.

    One complete sentence represents one complete idea. Synthesising your ideas one sentence at a time helps you refine your thinking and organise your ideas into a robust hierarchy.

    How many words can I put into each idea box?

    One sentence per box maximum, around 25 words.

    Each box represents one idea, which means that each box should include only one sentence. Good sentences are short, so try and keep below 25 words wherever possible.

    Words such as ‘and' as well as punctuation such as commas are hints that your sentence may contain more than one idea. In that case you may need to break your sentence into several boxes.

    TERMINOLOGY

    Audience

    The end user of any piece of communication you may be preparing, whether that is a voicemail or a lengthy paper. There may be multiple users to consider, for example your face-to-face client may present your document to the CEO and you will need to communicate differently for each party, perhaps using an email cover sheet or a conversation to communicate with your face-to-face audience and a final letter or report for the CEO.

    You may also need to consider people who will read your document later on. For example, file notes about a sales meeting or conversations with a client are relevant straight away but also potentially years later where a clear understanding of the context and the logic will be even more important than it is now while the information is fresh.

     

    Context

    The context is the starting point of the story that you and your audience will agree is true. It contains enough information for them to understand the situation you are talking about. By inference the context will not include new or surprising information.

    Some people call this the ‘situation'.

    Deductive Argument

    A term used to describe a storyline that is structured by using deductive logic at the top level, immediately following the answer, or governing idea.

    A deductive argument begins with a major premise, or statement, followed by a minor premise, or comment on the statement, which then leads to an unavoidable conclusion or recommendation. These come in many forms, which are based in logic.

    Here's an example of a commonly used form, called a syllogism:

    • Success requires X
    • You are not equipped to do X
    • Therefore, build capability in X

    Deductive Logic

    The form of logical reasoning used when solving a problem or crafting an argument story that involves deducing a solution from a series of premises. The elements of a deductive story are dependent upon each other with one naturally leading to the next. If the links between the ideas in the deductive chain are not strong, the deduction will be flawed.

    The example to the left illustrates a simple fallacy that demonstrates this point.

    Executive Summary

    The executive summary includes the introduction (the context, trigger and question) as well as the answer and an overview of your whole story.

    It is particularly useful for providing a roadmap for the reader in documents that are half a page or longer. Providing a snapshot of the story that matches the structure of the document provides them with a high level perspective of what is to come, reminds them why they should read on and also helps them decide how to read on. For example, if they know a lot about one or two sections of the story they know instantly that they can skim these and dig into the parts that are new or intriguing.

    Here is an example of an executive summary to show you what we mean:

    (Context) BigCo has been exploring ways to build its business outside Australia and (trigger) the exec team has identified three high potential options for the board to review.

    (Implied question: What are they?)

    1. Build on existing relationships across Asia Pacific to find new customers for our Australian-designed and manufactured goods
    2. Contract with manufacturers in Asia Pacific to manufacture Australian-designed products that we can then market to Asian, European and American markets
    3. Partner with SmartCo to manufacture and distribute Australian designed goods globally

    The strengths and weaknesses of each of these options will now be discussed in turn. (These three points now form the headings for the sections in the body of the document).

    Grouping

    A term used to describe a storyline that is structured using inductive logic or a list of ideas.

    It is a way of organising ideas so that

    • One idea synthesises the ideas that follow
    • That one idea triggers one question in the reader's mind, which the writer anticipates
    • The ideas that follow answer that one question, which means that they are one type of thing.

    Introduction

    The introduction is the first part of your document and includes the context, trigger and question.

    The introduction forms a ‘mini narrative' that helps you and your reader come to the same beginning point for your document. It helps you clarify where the story should go and helps the reader join you at that destination.

    The standard form will begin with the context, then explain the trigger and lead to the document's primary question. The primary question may be stated or implied, depending upon your purpose and the tone of the document.

    MECE / NONG

    MECE stands for Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive. This means that collectively the ideas in the storyline should exhaust the entire relevant universe of ideas set up by the overarching answer, and that those sub-ideas should mutually exclude each other. In other words, MECE could be described as “no gaps, no overlaps” or NONG. No ideas should overlap each other, and there should be no gaps between the ideas and no gaps within the overarching story.

    Identifying whether a set of ideas passes the MECE / NONG test is difficult, and ordering your ideas visually into a hierarchy seems to help people ‘see' the gaps and overlaps better than if working within an actual document.

     

    Storyline

    A storyline is a diagram that describes the structure of a story, whether it is a grouping or a deductive argument. A storyline provides a visual hierarchy of ideas for a piece of communication and helps the author identify strengths and weaknesses behind the logic of the story they have for an audience.

    Here is an example of a deductive storyline presented as a one-pager from neosi:

    Synthesis

    Synthesis is the process of drawing insights from raw data that enables that data to be useful to an audience. For example, what do the following three ideas tell you?

    • Greece has many tourist attractions
    • Following the Global Financial Crisis, Greece is a particularly affordable tourist destination
    • Greece has a wonderful, warm climate

    Could it be saying: Consider taking a holiday in Greece?

    Trigger

    The trigger describes why you are communicating about the context to this audience at this particular point in time.

    It flows naturally from the context to form a narrative flow that then leads tightly to the central question that the document aims to answer. Modifying the trigger will significantly alter the question and the nature of the whole story.

    The trigger varies in length from half a sentence for many documents to a paragraph in longer pieces of communication. It may be longer still if you are writing a book.