Three Keys To Narrative Building, Not Soda Fast, And Online Dating: Swipe Right?
Here’s What You Need To Know
From the courtroom to the boardroom to the campaign trail, a compelling story is an essential part of achieving a desired outcome. The same holds true in public affairs challenges that bring with them political, financial, and reputational risks. It is not enough to just have the facts; the facts need to be presented in a clear, compelling way that resonates with your target audience.
Crafting a compelling story, or narrative building, is more important than ever given today’s fast-moving and uncertain Attention Economy. The way to withstand scrutiny, and influence public opinion, is to build your public affairs campaign on a foundation of facts that provide an understanding of the threats and opportunities confronting you, whether they are competing industries or companies, activist group protests, political opponents, or others.
In order to gain a competitive advantage, here are Delve’s three keys to effective narrative building that will help you be ready if and when you face a public affairs challenge in the court of public opinion:
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- Gather The Facts: Facts are the foundation of any compelling narrative. Due diligence when gathering your facts means that you start your research knowing what you know and don’t know, identify good sources, follow any new leads that arise in the process of gathering your facts, and use any new information that comes to light to shift your analysis. By presenting a factual case, any public affairs challenge, from countering a historical misconception to arguing even the trickiest hot button issue, becomes manageable.
- Ask The Right Questions: What are the patterns of behavior? What themes are emerging? What are the similarities and differences between words, actions, and associations? What are the myths vs. the facts? Does research confirm or disprove “conventional wisdom”? Good questions begin to fill out the picture of the story you are trying to tell. In analyzing the results of good questions, one can make connections between data from different sources, seek confirmation of existing analysis, anticipate conflicting information, and ultimately build a narrative that stands out.
- Build A Fact Pattern: Competitive intelligence, great analysis, and facts and figures alone are worthless if nothing is clear to the target audience. A fact pattern is a way of presenting information analysis in a clear and concise story that can be easily understood without any special knowledge. When it comes to the facts, guard against the curse of knowledge and ensure they are presented in a linear and easy to follow manner.
When done properly, narrative building informs your strategy during a public affairs challenge and allows you to change direction if necessary. Use these three keys to anticipate and prepare for whatever comes next, and transform your drumbeat messaging based off of well-researched and well-written narratives into concrete victories.
News You Can Use
NOT SODA FAST
Advocates of soda taxes often frame them as a tactic to halt obesity and improve public health, but the uproar and subsequent repeal of the tax on sweetened beverages after only two months in effect in Cook County, Illinois – which includes Chicago – suggests that there is more to the matter. The controversial measure, which put a one-cent tax per fluid ounce on every sweetened beverage sold, including sports drinks and artificially-sweetened diet sodas, had a rocky start since it went into effect.
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The soda tax confused the public, ran afoul of existing state laws, and caused the U.S. Department of Agriculture to threaten to withhold millions of dollars for the State of Illinois because local governments cannot tax food stamp purchases, including sodas. Initially, Cook County tried exempting sweetened beverages purchased with food stamps, but that left them in the position of taxing diet sodas while allowing lower income families to buy sugary sodas tax free. This hypocrisy exposed the reality that the soda tax is merely another tax on middle- and working- class citizens under the guise of public health.
WETHINK
WeWork, the $20 billion startup that began with coworking spaces and then branched out to living space and fitness centers, is now making a move into the realm of public policy. The company recently announced a partnership with the Aspen Institute to create a series of studies on the future of work and cities.
WeWork and other similar coworking spaces have revolutionized how people live and work in cities around the world, and the data collected and analyzed from its workspaces everyday will provide key insight into how work is done in the 21st century. This partnership also provides WeWork an innovative avenue to influence future policies on these labor issues, which may inspire other companies to follow suit.
ONLINE DATING: SWIPE RIGHT?
It was not long ago that the rise of online dating websites and apps were being blamed for undermining serious relationships and destroying the art of courtship. However, new data has emerged that presents the first evidence of how online dating has affected society – and it suggests a different narrative altogether.
Since the introduction of the first dating websites in 1995, researchers discovered that the increasing popularity of online dating has correlated with a rise in interracial marriages and that married couples who meet online have lower rates of marital breakup than those who meet traditionally. While not causation, this correlation provides a basis for further study on the matter, and in particular, how traditional social patterns where people meet partners through their connections differ from new social links created when complete strangers become partners using online dating platforms.
VETOING FREE SPEECH?
Are efforts to pacify college campuses and satisfy critics undermining free speech? After one university implemented a hecklers’ “veto” over events that present an “undue risk” to the campus, further actions limiting free speech seem to be appearing elsewhere throughout academia. The latest example is an academic journal’s decision to withdraw an article because of “serious and credible threats of personal violence” caused by people who disagree with it, despite the fact that the study the article was based on went through the appropriate academic scrutiny before publication. With protests on college campuses surrounding free speech escalating, policies used in academia to mitigate controversy leave some to wonder whether they are helping to de-escalate the situation or are instead contributing to it.
RATING FINANCIAL CRIME VULNERABILITY
A bank based in Malta became the first financial institution to receive a rating to determine its vulnerability to financial crime risk. Sigma Ratings’ mission is to “support global business and banking growth by enhancing transparency and standardizing metrics for good corporate behavior,” and their independent rating is derived from an algorithm that places a financial institution on a scale from one to ten, with the upper number demonstrating a positive outlook regarding risk.
Rated companies can utilize their rating as a competitive advantage to position themselves as a market leader and standard-bearer on compliance issues related to money laundering, terror financing, sanctioned entities, and other national and multinational requirements aimed at staunching the flow of money for illicit dealings. In addition, this development points to a new tool for financial institutions, business partners, consumers, and regulators alike to find out what they don’t know when it comes to financial crime vulnerability.