So how do you take the reams of data, ideas and passion that fuel your work and turn them into a story that’s short, tight, convincing, even inspiring?

When I meet with an astute prospective client in a business I’ve not written about before, they often ask, “How will you write effectively about what we do?” I tell them two things: finding the story is about asking the right questions, and telling the story is about making the right decisions.

Ask the right questions
You don’t need to provide the full myriad of reasons that make you better than the competition—one or two good ones go a long way. Ask the right questions and keep the answers simple. Focus on what makes you, and your audience, unique. A starter set:

Who is your audience and what do they want?
What are the obstacles to their success?
What do they need to do differently and why?
How can you help?
What are your greatest successes?
How did you achieve them?
What does that say about who you are and what you do?

Make the right decisions
All good writers understand the need to “kill our babies.” Before you dial 911, this simply means understanding the need—no matter how beautiful or true an idea, word, stat or fact—to remove what doesn’t make sense for the story.

Corporate reporting is often long on status and short on real successes. Companies want to report every inch of progress they have made. They want to cite every fact that supports their position. I have seen this mind-numbing tendency in action and can attest that communicating in this vein is the quickest route off of the forward path. No matter how good the news, too much is too much. You have to make decisions.

Ask yourself—is this a nice to know or a need to know? If it is not moving the plot, if it is not something your customers or employees will care about, is not a benefit to them or table stakes for the success you seek—then leave it in the board room.

A great book for a fast start to making a long story short is Guy Kawasaki’s Art of the Start. Of Mackintosh and garage.com fame, Kawasaki has seen true innovation and likely every business pitch that exists—this guy knows how to grab your customers’ attention. For an added bonus re: who you are and what you seek to accomplish in business, read the last chapter first.

Or, more aptly…

“The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.” - Blaise Pascal

I have seen plenty of good ideas fall down simply because their communicators lacked the time and resources to hone their story, and their audience had no time to absorb it. If I had a dollar for every time I have asked or thought, “Let’s get down to the brass tacks–what are we trying to say here?” I would be writing this blog from a bungalow on Hanalei Bay , island of Kauai , while being fanned by a cabana boy with a gold-dipped palm frond. 

Why is it so hard to tell a short, good story?

1. There’s the foregone conclusion: long = complex = smart = valuable. Did this ever add up? Your high school English teacher didn’t think so. Neither did Hemmingway.

2. There is the issue of clear vision and mission which, ironically, tend to get murky as change takes hold in companies and the clarity and frequency of communications become more important than ever before. Understandable? Yes. Insurmountable? No.

3. There is the tendency—frankly rife in boardrooms everywhere—to focus on the short game. Time is tight. Everything is Priority One. The Fire Drill rules. Who has time to think about the story when they spend 16 hours a day reacting to the most recent crisis?

And how long can you remain competitive in this mode?

Stories are proactive. They are the plot that drives prioritization in a world full of “to dos”. When the pressure is high to be everything to everyone, they are bedrock to stand firm on. And on those bad days when you ask yourself just what in the hell you’re doing and how you got here, your story is the shortcut back to the forward track.

But it has to be a good one. One you can tell to anyone who’ll listen, any time, day or night. Because your stakeholders simply don’t have time to wait for you to make your case.

In a world where information knocks long and loud on every door into the human consciousness, where data demands to be dealt with moment to moment, and more and more companies are realizing that information is their business, the competition for your customer’s ear is exceedingly stiff. Make it easy for them to understand your point of view quickly, and the battle for their hearts and minds will be half won.