Today, after a few years, I am facing the blank page again, starting a new book on business transformation and the cloud.
The blank page is that moment where in your head the ideas are clear, but you have to find a way to explain them little by little and in a way understandable to the rest, that moment can be scary even for renowned writers, who sometimes need a little boost to get started. And this not only happens in books, it also happens in real life, we all have our blank page, and several a day.
When someone asks us something unexpected, we have to structure the answer and see the best way to convey what makes sense in our head so that it also makes sense to the others, and it is not always easy.
For example, another blank sheet of paper is when we want to present a project to a business where we are clear about its advantages and that it will bring us benefits, but we must also make them aware of this potential to get their approval. how to express it? in what order? with what words? We cannot leave it to chance and go to the meeting and say the first thing that comes to mind, we must think and mature the storyline, seeing different points of view, connecting with the people who will receive the message and empathizing with them so that they are open to receive us and this involves knowing the concerns of the audience and being aware that not everyone in the room will be interested or concerned about the same thing.
Before filling in a blank sheet, we must know what concerns the people who will read that sheet, if they are concerned or interested in improving customer relations, they will not receive a message about an inventory management solution in the same way as a customer experience solution.
We need to know who will be the receiver of the message and modulate the words we use, the structure, the duration, etc. It is not the same to talk to a 6-year-old girl than to a CFO of a multinational company, and although it is hard to believe, they are not interested in the same topics either.
That’s why it’s important to be able to tell stories that thread everyone’s thoughts and engage them in our message
That’s all, I have a blank sheet of paper waiting for me.