Making Your Stories STICK

Revisiting the SUCCES framework

My older sister Kathy and I sat beside each other on the cement bench on the train platform in Switzerland carefully verifying our remaining funds, in various currencies, for our rail trek around Europe. We were, figuratively and literally, at a crossroads on our vacation. We had not budgeted for hotels and had stayed with friends everywhere we visited. We devised a plan to take an overnight train to a destination we had not yet seen, spend the day sightseeing, then take another train back to Frankfurt near where Kathy was stationed with the U.S. Army.

It was Christmas 1988, long before cell phones and Google searches. I leafed through our tattered train guide and came up with four options: Paris, Monaco, Rome, or Venice. We began debating the options. I told Kathy if we chose Rome, we might see my friend, Mark, a Capuchin brother working near the Vatican. That sealed it. With less than 15 minutes before our train left, Kathy went for tickets and I tried to determine how to get Brother Mark’s phone number.

To be both efficient with our cash and effective in securing the number, I called his parents in Olmitz, Kansas. I believed with just one transatlantic call I could succeed. (Okay, well, two.) I first dialed directory assistance in the States. I dropped coins into the phone and waited. Within minutes, I had the needed digits written on the back of my train schedule. Pouring more coins into the payphone, I reached Bernie and Mary Jo on the first ring. Amazed to hear from me, Mary Jo quickly thumbed through her address book to find his number. By then, however, our train had arrived and I had no time to call him. We rushed to board, found seats where we could sleep for the night, and wondered if Mark would even be in Rome when we arrived 12 hours later.

This week I find myself again in Switzerland but in very different circumstances. Two of my clients, a private Swiss bank and an international boarding school, have brought me over to teach storytelling skills to two very different audiences: private wealth managers and aspiring teenage entrepreneurs. With both groups, I am using one of my favorite frameworks for making stories stick from Chip and Dan Heath’s bestselling 2007 book, Made to Stick. I thought today’s installment would be a great time to share (or refresh) their SUCCES framework with all of you:

• Simple—straightforward dilemma, broke but wanting to finish the vacation

• Unexpected—Finding not one but two phone numbers quickly

• Concrete—payphone, coins, bench, train schedule

• Credible—sharing both setbacks and breakthroughs adds to this

• Emotional—distress in an unknown land

• Stories—in three tight paragraphs you saw us travel from exposition to resolution

When we can hit four, five, or all six of these elements, we are more likely to not only have our story stick in their minds but also achieve our desired impact (securing the interview, making the sale, or landing the second date).

I invite you to see how your stories this week can be more SUCCESful with this proven framework for making your message stick.

JD’s Recommendations: what I’m reading, hearing, and seeing:

• Reading: I’m devouring the practical exercises in Alice LaPlante’s just-released Write Yourself Out of a Corner. It’s helping me get my next book done (he teases).

• Hearing: Barbara White Bryson & Fred Gutierrez’s Curious Teams podcast is directed at the design and construction industry with useful insights we all can use. I’m partial to episode 25.

• Seeing: Do not skip past Cillian O’Connor’s mystifying magic on Britain’s Got Talent. You may need Kleenex to watch this 13-year-old’s inspiring audition.

Thanks for enjoying my newsletter. If you have suggestions for items I should read, hear, or see and then endorse, drop me an email.

As always, jds

P.S. Did you know some research indicates the P.S. is the most-read portion of written communication? Did you also know I treasure every single comment and like that my newsletter elicits? I’ll let you decide what to do with those two facts.