CONTENT

When it comes to conversations, your content is King. But only when your context and intent are clear.

The content in our conversations is King, it activates our context and intent. It creates a sense of belonging in your audience. But if you don't have the context and intent nailed, then your content is more roadkill than royalty.

Content is absolutely vital for powerful conversations. The words, messages, stories and numbers we provide when we communicate are what make us a unique species.

Cost of neglect

And it is our obsession with words and numbers which explains why so many managers jump straight to the content when they are planning conversations. But neglecting the context and intent causes problems.

If we put content first then we increase the chance of waffle, irrelevance and boredom. Our impact goes out the window. It gets rushed, not considered. And we owe our employees, leaders and customers more than that.

Employees say that big chunks of their working days are wasted because of meaningless communication and that poorly planned conversations impact project delivery, create low morale and can mean loss of sales. Read more about the price, profit and productivity of conversations in my book Switch (first chapter is free here).

Seen and unseen

Content is the shiny bit. The tangible artefacts like graphs, data, words, and visuals. They are crucial for our conversations: but are the final part when it comes to planning.

It is the context and the intent (the bits that we don’t see) that create a successful conversation. These come first. Getting the context and intent right enables you to build content that your audiences see and more importantly feel! It is the context and intent that creates belonging for participants as part of the conversation. These are unseen but are felt.

So, once you have decided on the context and your intent, get clear on your content.

Ask yourself:

- What will get everyone on the same page (context)?
- What words, numbers, and visuals will provoke discussion aligned to my intent?
- What stories and experiences can we bring to the table?
- What do I want them to do?

New way

Where do you usually start when you are planning an important discussion?

Stepping back and thinking about the purpose of your discussion will save time and effort and increase the chances of you getting the outcome you want.

This might all seem obvious. But we are naturally like magpies. We jump straight to the shiny stuff (content) and forget the purpose.

Read Chapter 3 of Switch for an endless pool of data, information and content about the price, profit and productivity of powerful conversations.