PR Perspective: What's Your Story?
Bringing Great Stories to Life

by Lori Schwind,

Lori Schwind Communications LLC

lschwind@cableone.net

At the heart of every cover story, press release, media interview, presentation, and new business meeting, is a great story waiting to be told. How do you find it?

For many communicators, storytelling begins with the traditional assembly of the who, what, when, where, why and how. But that's not storytelling. That's an announcement of the facts. To generate powerful, compelling storytelling that builds mind share, market share and thought leadership for products, services and causes, organizations need to discover and bring to life great stories that exemplify the "best of" their achievements. What do great stories look like? Here's a sampling:

1. Great stories identify and celebrate value in the world.
They don't announce news; they create it with the value they bring to market. The recent Time Magazine cover story honoring The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and U2 lead singer Bono for their humanitarian efforts is a great example. Fortunately, each day in organizations large and small across the globe, there are thousands of similar untold stories of triumph, discovery, invention and achievement, no less noble, waiting to be shared. How long has it been since your organization brought its achievements to life through great storytelling?

2. They build community, enabling us to accomplish great things together.

Several years back, eight amazing Idaho residents embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to climb Alaska's highest mountain to raise funds for Idaho Make-A-Wish. One climbed as a tribute to family members who had died years prior, another because he wanted to experience the solitude of the mountain. Whatever the tale, the community embraced their efforts and the press documented their exploits with riveting accounts of adventure. When was the last time you invited the community to create great stories with you?

3. They connect your story to my story.

If you watched the Winter Olympics, you know what I mean. Strength, courage, determination, grit - it was all there and more. It's the stuff that dreams are made of, and it connects us with the commonality in greatness that defines everyone. It also makes for powerful storytelling whether we're launching a new product or raising awareness for a struggling nonprofit. When was the last time you reached out to connect with the stories of your customers?

4. They open us up to new possibilities.

Great storytelling lifts us out of the mundane to give us a whole new perspective on what's possible. Imagine Chicago is doing just that. Working with community leaders, residents, and local media, it harnesses the power of storytelling to inspire the creation of vibrant, thriving communities. When was the last time you harnessed the power of storytelling to imagine and create the future?

Bringing Great Stories to Life...
How do we find great stories and bring them to life? One of the most powerful methods available today is a process called Appreciative Inquiry.

Unlike traditional approaches for news gathering, Appreciative Inquiry uses appreciation and inquiry to proactively identify and liberate the "best of" an organization's collective wisdom - its strengths, talents, capabilities, and accomplishments - to unleash rich, vibrant story possibilities that can serve as the foundation for press releases, presentations, media interviews, case studies and more.

It fuses a series of communications principles with a 5 "D" framework to Define, Discover, Dream, Design and Deliver great stories to life. Here's how it works:

In the Define phase, organizations are prompted to consider what they wish to create and why. They are asked: What is my purpose for communicating? What are the audiences I want to reach? What do I want to create with this presentation or press release? What is the best story I can tell to achieve my purpose?

In the Discovery stage, questions are used to uncover and discover vibrant story possibilities. In the Dream phase, story possibilities are dreamed to life. In the Design phase, dreams are given form and sculptured into presentations, press releases, messaging for media interviews and more. In the Delivery phase, stories are delivered to the marketplace via presentations, press releases, interviews and more.

The result: communicators benefit from innovative and successful strategies to create powerful, compelling storytelling that makes a difference.

About the author

Lori Schwind began her career in the New York metropolitan area working for a leading public affairs firm. Since then, she's directed storytelling and outreach campaigns for a variety of agencies and corporations and has also served as a contributing writing to local, regional and national media outlets. Accredited in public relations, Lori held several senior worldwide public relations and executive communications positions at Hewlett Packard, prior to launching Lori Schwind Communications.

Lori Schwind Communications LLC is a public relations counseling and training firm that specializes in storytelling for internal and external communications. For more information, visit www.LoriSchwindCommunications.com, e-mail lschwind@cableone.net or call Lori at (208) 939-4051.

Copyright © 2006 Lori Schwind. All rights reserved.