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When you think about the situation of communicating to others, what do you need to tell them to get them to understand and agree to your idea?
In a world where more and more is done with technology tools and climate change maybe happening, we’ll need the skills of educating and influencing people to take action.
The 4 Questions I teach in this content and video are based on the 4MAT framework developed by Bernice McCarthy.
I’ve found that this framework is most effective when you’ve got to communicate an idea, project or a concept and you need that person to feel educated, inspired. This framework can help you transform someone from sceptical, no knowledge and resistant to understanding, supportive, and committed.
Four Core Questions That You Might Want To Consider When Communicating Ideas
1. Why?
It’s the “Why” for your specific audience. What you have to respond to is the “What’s in it for me” for them, and how does this idea benefit then or remove a problem.
If we talk about digital transformation and the need to use a new system, the purpose for that could be around helping them in their daily job. Do this quicker, faster and easier and remove the problem of manual work.
2. What?
Most people when they are learning something new, they ask themselves key questions:
- What do I need to know?
- What are the core ideas?
The way I traditionally do that is by considering both sides of the brain – left brain ideas which are logically and factually, while the right brain which are stories, analogies and more emotionally content. So the left brain wants to understand, the right brain wants to feel and connect.
When you explain ideas I recommend you flip between facts and case studies, and stories and analogy.
3. How?
The audience then asks themselves the question: “How do I implement or execute on the principles or the ideas you talk about.” What really works here is a demo or explaining steps and case studies. We are aiming to close the gap between an idea and the implementation of that idea in your business or in your life.
4. So What?
Most people when they understand the “What”, “Why” and “How”, they ask themselves the question of “How would this work for me?” – how do I translate it from your world into my world.
What we want to do here is to help them reflect on the questions and make the connection on how they can apply it – reflection and collaboration phase.
In this phase, what I often do is to get people to stop and think about the biggest insight you had so far and talk to the next person, how are you going to apply that in your world. It gets people engaged and thinking about how they are going to do that.
What I would love you to do is to think about if you are able to take these 4 questions and use them in a project, something you have to communicate, a concept where you have to educate or influence, how would that work for you?
If you were to design and plan out that communication, how would you structure the Why, What, How and So What into that communication. Let me know, love to hear from you.
When you are ready…. let’s work out if we are a good fit.
If you are a 50 person plus business, have budget to develop your organisation, and you have challenges with teamwork in your top 3 levels of leaders than we may be a good fit to work together. For more information, click below to watch a short video on my teamwork model and read testimonials from previous clients.
Let’s talk further about teamwork in your organisation…
