Everybody skydives

While working on the client side early in my career, I had the pleasure of being part of a great team of corporate communicators at a major Kansas City employer.

One of our regular assignments was the production of a 12- to 16-page quarterly newsletter for employees and “friends” of the organization. A staple of that newsletter’s editorial calendar was a slate of stories about the employees-of-the-month for the just-completed quarter.

My editorial mates and I always groaned when divvying up that assignment, because every single employee-of-the-month interview produced the same four quotes:

“I’m so surprised and/or honored to get this award.”
“I love my job.”
“I love the people I work with.”
“I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.”

No matter who had been selected, or what department he or she worked in, those four quotes were guaranteed. Every time.

It got to the point that I ended up saying to my fellow communicators, “Pray they skydive.” Why? Because if the employee was a skydiver, raised rottweilers, or had an orange grove in his or her backyard, it would at least give you some kind of hook beyond the standard story of job satisfaction.

The fact of the matter is, though, everyone “skydives.” Each story that communicators are charged with crafting – whether it involves people, products, new procedures or whatever – has a “skydiving” component to it. There’s the news, and then there’s the story. And it’s up to us to find the story in the news. Why is it so important?

• Audiences can relate. When politicians want to state a position, they don’t pull out reams of chart-filled paper from which they quote; they share a story about a citizen they met whose situation typifies the point they are trying to make. Put yourself in the audience’s place and determine how you could make your point in a manner that all your readers can appreciate.
• It challenges you – and your sources. Every communicator has dealt with having to write stories that felt like much ado about nothing...times when the answers to the most basic tests of newsworthiness suggested that no one but your source would be even remotely interested. That’s when the real work begins. Challenge your source to explain how this news will impact the people who will be reading your finished product. Create a demographic profile of those that will be affected. And then put the two together to tell the story.
• It’s respectful. Nobody wants to look dull in print. It makes the experience an unpleasant one and guarantees that your source will be less interested in talking with you the next time around. That’s why it’s up to you to take the time to get to know them – beyond the reason for the interview – so that their own “skydiving” story can come up in the conversation.

The message? In the midst of even the most seemingly mundane news, there’s a story waiting to be told. So pack your chute and head for the plane.