To make your story successful, it is important to tailor it to your audience. By default we look at our story from our own perspective. But it’s important to take the viewpoint of your audience: use you-messages. That way you will capture their attention, and inspire them to act. You can do this, by following the steps below.
1. Specify and state your call-to-action
What should your audience do, once you have shared your story? Make this ‘call to action’ as specific and actionable as possible. Show your audience what they need to do exactly, and how to they can do this.
Examples:X “Let me know if you are interested in participanting in our project.”
V “We’re looking for test subjects who are willing to spend about 4 hours doing some cognitive tests and filling in a questionnaire. If you are interested, please leave your email address with me after this presentation.”
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X “After my presentation, there will be some time for feedback.”
V “After my presentation, I’d like to know if the project planning seems realistic to you.”
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X “I would like your feedback.”
V “We struggle to apply this method, so your suggestions are very welcome. Should we adapt our method? Or should we use a different one? We have 15 minutes for discussion now, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.”
2. Connect to your audience with ‘IKEA‘
Relate to your audience’s Interests, Knowledge level, Experiences, and/or Ambitions (IKEA). Pick what’s most relevant for your audience and the topic of your story.
Interests
Highlight story elements that will capture your audience’s interest. Consider starting your story with these.
Example:X “Today I am going to tell you about my research, entitled ‘associations between financial liberalization and financial crises.”
V “Since you are all mathematicians, I’ll start with a math problem that is at the core of our financial crisis.”
Knowledge level
- Use words that your audience understands, whenever possible. If you use jargon, check if you can use a more familiar synonym/term.
Examples:X “Oocyte”
V “Egg cell”
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X “Dyad”
V “Pair”
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X “Dystocia”
V “Difficult childbirth” - If you can’t avoid an unfamiliar word, then introduce it gently. First explain it in accessible language, and only after that, introduce jargon.
Examples:X “The AFM – abbreviation of Authority for the Financial Markets – is responsible for supervising the operation of the financial markets.”
V “In the Netherlands, the financial markets are supervised by an independent body, the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM).”
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From the Craft of Research:
X “Calcium blockers can control muscle spasms. Sarcomeres are the small units of muscle fibers in which these drugs work. Two filaments, one thick and one thin, are in each sarcomere.”
V “Muscle spasms can be controlled with drugs known as calcium blockers. Calcium blockers work in small units of muscle fibers called sarcomeres. Each sarcomere has two filaments, one thick and one thin.”
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X “Programmed cell death is cell death mediated by an intracellular program. Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death that occurs in multicellular organisms. Blebbing is a biochemical event that may lead to characteristic cell changes and death.”
V “Each cell contains a program for its self-destruction, which is called programmed cell death. When programmed cell death occurs in multicellular organisms, it’s called apoptosis. A characteristic step in this process is the blob-like protrusion of the cell contents. This is called blebbing.” - Connect ideas that are new to your audience to ideas that they’re familiar with.
Examples: X “A solar storm is a disturbance on the Sun, which can emanate across the heliosphere and affect the Earth.”
V “You are familiar with storms: wind, rain, thunder… But did you know that the earth is also hit by solar storms now and then? Solar storms are nothing like regular storms – they are large explosions of energy emitted by the sun, which can be felt on earth. But like regular storms, they can also disrupt our electricity network.”
Experiences
Start your story with something that’s familiar to your audience. Connect your topic to their world – if possible, to their everyday life.
Examples: X “In our research, we study tensile strength of concrete reinforced with recycled tire steel fibers.”
V “Who of you came here by car today? Did you give any thought to the safety of the concrete roads you took, the concrete bridges you crossed? What if I told you that when you discard your car tires, instead of ending up in landfills and releasing harmful methane gas, those old tires may be used to reinforce concrete, so that it’s safe to build new roads with? This is what we are currently working on.”
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X “Irregular work patterns can disrupt circadian rhythms and sleep patterns, with detrimental effects on cognition, productivity, health and well-being.”
V “You all know that groggy feeling after having spent the night in the lab, ordering pizza at 10PM because you have to finish some work. Feels dedicated. But our research shows that working late can actually lower your productivity, depress your mood, and, in the long term, damage your health.”
Ambitions
Show your audience that you understand their problems. Explain how your story can help realize their ambitions. If possible, state that your call-to-action can help them reach their goals.
Examples: X “Our research shows that sleep deprivation has a detrimental effect on attention, learning, and working memory.”
V “To be successful as a researcher, you need to focus, learn new things, and perform complex cognitive tasks. These things are difficult to do with a lack of sleep. I’m going to tell you some techniques we discovered that can help you sleep better.”
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X “This state-of-the-art imaging system is more efficient, without sacrificing accuracy.”
V “With this new imaging system you can now make an MRI scan in 15 minutes, instead of the usual 45 minutes. And with the same result.”
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X “We are looking for a company where we can test our new method to remove food residues from packaging on an industrial scale.”
V “In 2030, all packaging materials must be recyclable by law. That is challenging for you as a recycling company, because certain food residues cannot be washed off the packaging. This makes it impossible to recycle them. We developed a method that removes those food residues. It would be great if we could collaborate: you will be able to recycle a larger proportion of packaging materials and we can test our method on an industrial scale.”