How Change Champions Can Kill Your Comms

Sometimes you have to create for the chorus, not the leads.

My first job in South Africa was working for Themi Venturas at The Durban Playhouse. He commissioned me to adapt a play called The Birds by Aristophanes for twenty-six students on their development course.

There were several 'beautiful constraints' here [thank you, Adam Morgan]. I had to give everyone a meaningful role in the production. I had to stick to the original story as much as possible. Not everyone had the same performance skill. And this was not a class exercise—it was going live to a paying public.

I had to maximise the small core cast of talent available and leverage the enthusiasm of the majority.

In writing any kind of change story for corporates, there are similar constraints. There is an existing narrative you have to communicate. Your cast of employees are variously skilled or enthusiastic about their role. And your audience includes your boss who is paying for your efforts from a change-marketing budget.

The key to getting this right is to give every player a stake in your corporate story. Not to just focus on the heroes, (those few employees that already have starring roles in the change you are driving). But also to give a voice to your massive - and often silent - supporting cast. That is, most of the talent you need to play active roles in the new narrative you are creating.

A great way to do this is through anecdotal research. Find out what most your majority audience feels about the change you are proposing. What role they see themselves playing in it - for or against. Try to capture real language and actual phrases to reflect later in your comms. Importantly, the more negative responses you unearth the better, because this will give your communication the true grit it needs to earn recognition, elicit engagement and gain traction. (There’s no good story without conflict.)

If you’d like to explore the possibilities of using dramatic techniques in your next corporate communication, contact me at nickwarren@me.com.

P.S. For Izonyoni—The Birds, I wrote a lot for the chorus. In chorus work, a group of actors support the main action with commentary, comic irony and physicality.

P.P.S. The plot of The Birds has a character convince the birds to create a city in the sky to regain their status as the original gods. How’s that for a Change Marketing challenge?