Too much starch?
The Sales & Counselor Selling Series
“To be free, you must have power. And to gain power, you must have structure.”
— James Brown (1933 – 2006)
The Godfather of Soul and
The Hardest Workin’ Man in Show Business
A Wire Hanger inside a shirt (and a little starch) preserves the press, and keeps it ready for use.
An Armature inside a sculpture, allows the clay to keep its shape.
A Frame inside an automobile makes it possible for the body panels to adhere to something.
A Skeleton inside the body gives muscle, tendon and flesh something on which to hang.
Rebar and Structural Steel provide the solid core of our architecture.
Structure gives things shape and permanence. You intend for an automobile, a body, a work of art, a business, a building, an argument, a nation or a shirt — to persist. But structure… Hard to persist or succeed at anything without it.
But people say, “Sure, I want my shirt looking fine! But I want my presentations free and unfettered… That “Ready, Set, Go!®” thing is much too structured.”
It’s one thing to pause and do a little quick dance step when crossing the square on the way to the office in the morning. It’s improvisation; winging it. Beautiful. But if you wish to make your career as a dancer, you must study, practice, rehearse, make a plan and eventually sign a contract for a performance, or many of them — each of which will be expected to “toe the line of structure and form.” People bought tickets! Oh all right, there may be a shot at an entire career of showing up when you feel like it and doing whatever comes to mind — if you’re willing to be paid whatever you can collect…
Well, you say; I want my options, I want my freedom, I want my flexibility! I don’t want to be tied down… Yeah, people have been saying those things for thousands of years. But other people simply settle down and make families. And towns. And cities. And businesses. And Universities. And buildings. Persistence. All stemming from a plan, an agreement, a standard way of doing things — structure.
Relax guys; we’re not talking marriage here, but communication.
We’ve noticed that when many people say they want to keep their freedom, they really mean they don’t want to commit. Keeping our options open, we can never be pinned down, never be forced to testify. We’re free agents, making it up as we go along. We roll into town, open up and say what’s on our mind, then get out of town…
And people say that “We’re good guys!” Nice. Likable. It’s just hard to recall exactly what was said, or what was offered… We never actually appear to stand for anything. And no one can say that what happened was our fault — we were just misinterpreted — misunderstood. We’re not guilty… Something safely innocuous about that — but it doesn’t sell very well…
What “Ready, Set, Go!®” represents is a “Standard of Expectation.” A Practitioner can be counted upon as an expert — a professional communicator. There will be an Outcome, a Next Step, a Recommendation. And a logical path for getting there. Internal sections, if required, to help people orient themselves. A Summary, to bring it all together in a neat package. Maybe a creative, intuitive Opening to soften the logic and draw people in. And, it won’t be delivered from the speaker’s point of view; but the listener’s.
While we think these components are pretty important, we’ve always suggested that composing a presentation is an exercise in “Zero-Based” composition. You don’t use any more starch than required to get the result… So, when a critic says, “It’s too much structure” we think “Our colleague doth protest too much!” He’s taken a perfectly flexible set of principles (which demand a commitment of time, concentration and creativity to master…) and turned them into a rigid set of binding rules (which are more easily rejectable) and then retired to his presumed life of “perfect intellectual flexibility” keeping his options open and playing it as it lays. Another way of saying, “Intellectual Irresponsibility.”
But the complete lack of structure… What’s the intention behind that? We suspect that deep down in a not so happy place, a lot of us fear having to produce. And the rebellion against structure is really a rebellion against the fear of being tied down… Turn it upside down, inside out, freeze it, then reject it as unfitting, uncomfortable and too restrictive; than reject the entire system because of the very “rigidity” which they, themselves imposed…
Guys, if you want your shirt “pre-wrinkled,” tell ’em to “Hold the Hanger.” But don’t reject beginning with the outcome in mind, the beauty of a creative/intuitive opening and the power of Aristotelian logic just because you choose to perceive those keystones of structure as “rigid…” Just soften up a little and hold the starch!
Like Mr. Brown said, To gain power, you must have structure.
Applications
1. Personally
How many things do you intend to accomplish today? One? No need for a list! But as the intentions diverge, it’s necessary to write things down. And after five items, one’s eyes tend to lose focus. Break the list down, stuff for work, stuff for home, stuff for the kids. There’s that structure again — and the power that goes with it!
2. At Home
“Kids, Dear, We need to talk! It’ll take an hour or two!” Yeah. Good luck with that.
On the other hand,
“Hi Gang, I have two things to discuss and nobody is looking at a screen until we’re done!” “Oh Dad!” “Yeah, hold on, it’ll take all of five minutes for your old man! So settle down and listen up!”
Which path leads to familial sanity?
3. At Work
Thanks for coming. I’ve been thinking about next year and I want to share a couple of ideas then open the floor to discuss your inspiration.
First, the Immediate Challenge. Then, Our Choices. Let’s begin.
Too much starch? We think not. The way to gain power is through structure.
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