STAY HUMAN - Moving Away From Template Dependence Disorder

Welcome to Attention Matters, the newsletter from Storythings which gives you practical insights and tools on how to tell better stories and grow your audiences’ attention.

This is the fifth post in our campaign exploring the seven signs you might be about to become a B2B Zombie. We’ll cover the symptoms, the cure, and simple steps to success. And read to the end for a useful reading list (we know from our stats you all love a reading list).

1 - How to avoid Generic Thought Leadership Disease
2 - Escaping from Buzzword Dependency Syndrome 
3 - Overcoming Algorithmic Addiction 
4 - Curing your Corporate Voice Affliction
5 - Moving away from Template Dependence Disorder (that’s this post!)
6 - Breaking out of Risk Aversion Paralysis
7 - How to cure Engagement Entropy Rot

Last week’s post about Corporate Voice Affliction really seemed to hit a nerve. Thanks to everyone who shared it or replied to us over email or LinkedIn, including a new client who wants us to run a workshop to help them Stay Human. We can design bespoke workshops for your teams and business, so get in touch if you’d like to chat.

And we’d love to help you de-zombify your thought leadership content - whether that’s podcasts, video, editorial, or reports - so hit reply and tell me why you’re worried you’re becoming a B2B zombie. I’ll come back with a cure asap!

Right then - on to this week’s sign of zombification - Template Dependence Disorder.

1 - What are the symptoms?

As we’re now on the fifth post in this series, I hope you’re starting to spot one of the root causes of zombification - playing it safe. A lot of the symptoms of zombification come from doing something not because you want to do it, but because you think other people expect you to do it. This is particularly noticeable in B2B comms, where you often have to use strict templates that other people create, whether that is internal brand guardians, or social media gurus telling you their templates ($$$) are the secret to success. Does any of this sound familiar?

• Same LinkedIn post format every time

• Blog posts that all follow identical structure

• Presentations that look like every other company's

• Email sequences that could be from anyone

• Social media posts that follow rigid formulas

But surely, having a repeatable structure, like a format, is a good thing? Yes, but there is a very important difference between a format and a template. At Storythings, we love formats (we’ve even got a whole newsletter dedicated to them). Formats are narrative structures that help audiences manage their attention, and build familiarity and loyalty. Formats are at the heart of all your favourite TV shows, podcasts, even magazine articles. Great formats are launchpads - they give creative talent tools to tell wildly diverse stories, and even license to break the rules if it makes the story more thrilling. A format challenges you to push your storytelling creativity to new heights.

Templates, on the other hand, are not launchpads but borders. They are all thick black lines that you have to avoid crossing. A template doesn’t let your storytelling reach new heights. The best you can do is colour it in. A template doesn’t challenge you - it just wants you to obey the rules.

2 - Take The Test

Templates are most prevalent in B2B educational material like reports, guides and courses. There’s something about educational B2B content that turns us all into the worst teachers we had at school. The ones who never brought any individuality or passion into their lessons, but just printed out worksheets and told us to be quiet while we filled them in. Do you find yourself using templates when you go into ‘teacher mode’ in your B2B comms? Take our test below to find out (but don’t worry, you don’t have to be quiet whilst you’re doing it.)

3 - Here’s the cure

The cure is simple - BEND THE RULES. That might sound hard if you’re working within a strict brand template at a major multinational corporation. But breaking the rules is about letting your humanity and creativity shine despite the limitations of the template. You might have to use brand safe logos and colours, but what other ways can you be creative?

Can you tell the story backwards? Can you tell it from multiple perspectives? Can you tell a story just using pictures? Or just using reported speech and dialogue? Can you illustrate an important data story using photographs instead of line graphs?

Try one thing that bends the rules in every story, and see what gets the best reaction from your audience.

4 - Our simple steps to success

Need help with ideas for how you can break the rules of a boring template? Here’s a few simple things you can try:

• Turn it into a game - Games are all about rules, but the fun is in finding out how to challenge and test them. So imagine your brand or social media template was the rules of a board game. What would be the most effective way to win? What would be the sneakiest way to cheat?

• Add even more rules (but make them weird) - The irony of constrictive templates is that you can be really creative by making them even more constrictive. If your brand guidelines or tone of voice documents are dull and inspiring, add a few extra rules to make it more absurd. Try writing something without mentioning your company’s name once. Do a photoshoot using the oldest phone camera you can find. Write a press release using only words you can cut out of today’s newspaper. Tell a story as if you were a time traveller from 25 years in the future (we’ve actually just done that for a major Advertising Festival).

• Or take a rule away - Another way to give yourself creative inspiration is to take one rule away. What if you could write a social post that was 500 words, instead of just 50 or so? What if you stopped including photos or videos of your face in your LinkedIn posts? (please god, can everyone stop doing this) What if you made a social video that lasted 5 times longer than everyone says it should?

If you haven’t twigged yet, the best way to stop templates zombifying your B2B comms is simple- MAKE IT FUN!

4 - Go Deeper

Read.jpg - One of my favourite newsletters is only images, with no text. Exactly the opposite of what you think a newsletter should be. Your brain won’t be able to resist making connections and coming up with your own stories.

George Orwell’s Writing Rules- This is a very popular and often shared list of advice from one of the greatest writers in the English language. I’m including it here because his last rule resonates with today’s theme - “Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”

Chuck Jones’ Rule for Roadrunner Cartoons - This is a perfect example of how strict rules can encourage, rather than stifle, creativity. The list describes the universe in which the Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote exist - eg “The Road Runner must stay on the road — for no other reason than that he’s a roadrunner” and “All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.” But bending these rules is where all the anarchy and fun of the Roadrunner cartoon comes from. My favourite? “Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote’s greatest enemy.” Just reading that makes me think of a giant anvil’s shadow, growing as it gets closer and closer to the hapless Wile E Coyote.

So that’s part five in our series done. I hope you’re finding them useful - I love all your comments and feedback, so please reply to this email to get in touch, or share the article on Linkedin tagging Storythings.

Matt