Don’t Forget the Tension

This week a friend reminded me I was forgetting the basics of business storytelling when they reminded me to anchor my listener of the motivations and/or pains of both parties when telling my story.

Roughly 80-90% of behavioral stories are about some sort of tension or trade-off.

• Prioritizing User Over Business

• Disagreement with _______ partner (fill in the blank)

• Time you dove into the data

• Time you made a tough call

When you set up your story, don’t forget to setup the tension.

For example: My story about trying to get a third-party vendor to move to a new Google platform:

• Google’s Goal: Launch a new privacy-safe solution and get it out on time to avoid bad PR

• Third-Party Vendor: Move to new platform with as little disruption to their business and customers as possible.