Opening with Universality
The first words of an engagement set the tone for everything that follows. When a manager opens their team meeting with an agenda of to-dos and a list of change requirements, the group's response energy declines and tension increases. When that manager challenges their audience to dream big, and look forward to sharing proven steps and processes the team will use to achieve that dream, their response energy rises and adrenaline activates.
Our opening statement sets the tone. In one-to-one conversations, small group gatherings, and conference room sessions, how we kick off the conversation can define either successful leadership or fumbled opportunity.
Lead or Manage
Survival psychology compels us to talk about ourselves and to prioritize our own personal needs. It's natural and biologically evolutionary. But in business, content that's perceived as overly self-focused is often detrimental to proactive group think.
The adage in corporate communications is that managers create a culture of expectations and consequences while leaders create a culture of empowerment, ownership, and commitment. In every dialogue, the lower status participant is gauging the higher status participant's intent: Am I being managed, or am I being led?
When we hear someone open their dialogue by talking about their own priorities and what matters most to them, the hierarchy is clear. Individual interests are, by nature, exclusive, and reduce potential for full group investment or participation. This holds true in every interaction. conversation, meeting, and presentation.
But when that speaker or team leader opens with a universal statement – a thought, concept, or observation shared by and deemed valuable to everyone in the room – investment is instant, and potential for group participation skyrockets.
Universality in #CorporateStorytelling
Universal communication includes varied perspectives, cultures, and linguistic and processing styles to establish commonality between multiple individuals. Scientifically, it gives our words the power to align people with our message. And in ways that feel familiar and accessible despite diverse viewpoints.
If I enter a cocktail party, ask what you for a living, then immediately tell you about my job, my self-centered approach builds two silos with no natural connection. If I instead open with a question about our common reason for attending, and how we each relate to the host and therefor one another, I've set up more options for our continued engagement.
Applying this strategy to leading a talk or breakout follows the same principle. If my first words focus on my name, my title, my brand, my product, and my intent for the session, I've chosen individual importance. My listeners are less likely to care, or to internalize whatever content I've planned to deliver.
If I instead open with a statement on the team’s shared current business reality, then offer an inspired vision of where we’ll succeed together and exactly how we'll get to that goal line, I've chosen universal connection. My listeners are more likely to lean in, and to anticipate the mutually beneficial content I want to show them.
Bottom Line
Einstein said that if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Dr. Wella Byrnes put it another way: Knowing something and explaining it effectively are two different things. Individual versus universal opening statements define this distinction.
Starting an engagement with ourselves says, 'I know what’s important and want to explain to you.' Starting with others says, 'I know what we have in common and my biggest interest in your best interest.’
More alignment, more avenues to connection, more opportunity for better outcomes.
