You have just put the finishing touches on the new strategy, and now it needs to come alive in the organisation. You call a meeting to tell your employees and colleagues about it:
‘As a player in a global market, we must be agile and adaptable. We must always be ready to act in constantly changing conditions. And we must continuously take the steps needed to keep up. Today we face an important transition, and our new strategy is the first step towards it. It will be demanding, yes – but I will also say this: I’m looking forward to it! I believe that with the new strategy we can remain the market leader. But if we are to succeed, I need you to help me.’
And yet the reaction never comes. The people who heard your presentation apparently haven’t seen the light. A possible – and highly likely – explanation is that you have fallen into the classic trap: you presented your message from your own point of view, built around your own ambitions and goals. That is natural, but not always effective. When we want to create change – big or small – we need to translate it for our audience, so it makes sense to them and they can see themselves in it. In this article you get an effective tool for building motivation and ownership among your people for the changes you want to make.
The model we will use was originally developed to analyse folk tales. The French semiotician Algirdas Julien Greimas developed it, inspired by Russian folklore, because he wanted to explain why certain stories are so powerful. Some know it as the actantial model.
The model puts words to the roles and relationships in a typical fairy tale. There is a hero. The hero has a goal – something he wants to achieve, usually involving a princess and half a kingdom. For there to be a story at all, there must also be an opponent who stands in the hero’s way. If he could simply walk into the castle and get the princess’s ‘yes’, there wouldn’t be much of a story. And for the hero to finally reach his goal and overcome what often looks like an unbeatable opponent, he needs someone to help him. He has a helper.
Take the story of Robin Hood: the hero (Robin Hood) has a goal (to save the people of Sherwood). The helper (Little John) joins him on the journey, and the opponent (Prince John) tries to stop them.
‘What does all this fairy-tale talk have to do with me and my communication?’ you might ask. Quite a lot, actually. When we listen to a speaker, we are constantly trying to decode the cast and the plot of the story. So the model doesn’t just tell us something about roles in fairy tales. It tells us something fundamental about how we see the world around us: from our own point of view.
We all have goals we are striving for – an exciting career, a good family life, success at work. So do your audience. And they judge what you say in the light of those goals: How does this affect my goals? Does it help me, or does it make it harder? In other words, your audience listens to your message with an ear for how it affects them.
If you put yourself at the centre and ask your audience to help you with something so that you can reach your goal, you push them into either the helper role or the opponent role – because you have already taken the hero role yourself. If you are on good terms with them, they may become your helpers. But if you don’t have a close relationship, or your credibility isn’t at its peak, you risk them becoming your opponents. Especially if the change is a hassle and they can’t see what’s in it for them. And then it becomes hard to motivate them and influence their behaviour in a positive direction.
The model gives you three roles to work with: the hero, the helper and the opponent. And as you have probably worked out by now, it pays to cast your audience as the hero and yourself as the helper if you want their goodwill.
Putting your audience in the hero role doesn’t mean flattering them, stroking their egos or making them superstars in your presentation. It means they should feel that you are talking to them and that you have understood how what you are saying affects them. You have to translate your message into their world. In the strategy example, that means telling them what the strategy means for them. How will it affect their work or their part of the organisation? What will be different for them? And how will they notice an improvement once the strategy is in place?
The more attractive the goal you can describe, the more motivated your people – the heroes – will be to reach it. So choose carefully which goal you speak to. Start by understanding what they dream of: What matters to them in their work? Is it developing smart solutions, giving great customer service, helping users, keeping budgets on track – or something else entirely?
Once you have analysed your audience, the task is to find a goal that all – or at least most – of them can share. It works best if the goal is close to them, such as succeeding with a specific project they care about, or getting more time and better conditions for their core work. Goals that are further from their own interests, such as growth for the whole organisation, have less impact because they make less difference to their day-to-day work. It is also important to choose a goal you can credibly help them reach.
Depending on who you are speaking to, it often makes sense to talk about slightly different goals, even if the underlying message is the same. That isn’t an attempt to deceive anyone – it shows that you have tailored your communication to the people in front of you.
Being the helper doesn’t mean you can’t talk about yourself. In fact, you should always be visible and clear, so your people know where you stand. It is rarely enough to let the message speak for itself; your people want to hear you state the direction and your expectations as clearly as possible. The important thing is not to talk mainly about goals that matter to you (or to management), but to bring in your audience’s perspective. Where relevant, you are welcome to show how you will help them reach their goals – but you shouldn’t be the main character.
Being the helper doesn’t mean being soft, either. You can say things that involve conflict. Just remember that you are Little John and your audience is Robin Hood. If you have a difficult message, say it directly:
‘I know this will change your routines, but once you are used to it, it will allow you to …’
‘I’m here to help you succeed.’
Sometimes you have to announce something that is very hard to frame positively from your audience’s point of view – for example a change in workflows decided by senior management that creates value elsewhere in the organisation, just not for the people you are speaking to. How can you still put them in the hero role?
If your message is mainly a hassle for your audience, you can cast the new workflow as the opponent and say something like:
‘I know the new registration system is a hassle and that you would rather spend your time on your other work. But I will do everything I can to make sure we only register what is absolutely necessary, so we spend as little time on it as possible.’
Instead of trying to sell the change as something positive, you acknowledge that it creates extra work. But by casting yourself as the helper, you can focus on what you can actually do something about: how you handle the extra work together.
At other times, the opponent can be your audience’s concerns or objections. Are they worried that a lack of time will stop you reaching the goal? Or are they thinking back to the last change initiative that never really delivered? In those cases, your job as the helper is to name the obstacle and explain how you think you can overcome it together.
It isn’t only your audience who benefit when you cast yourself as the helper and them as the hero. Using the hero model in your leadership communication also has clear advantages for you as a leader.
First, you help your people find motivation and take ownership of the change you want. When you cast them as the hero and speak to their goals, you create a strong ‘why’. You make it clear how what you are saying affects them – and therefore why they should do what you suggest. That ‘why’ is crucial to their motivation and willingness to take responsibility for making things happen.
Second, putting your people at the centre strengthens your credibility. It shows that you want them to do well and that you care about them – even when you bring bad news. Conversely, casting yourself or management as the hero quickly damages your credibility, because people can become frustrated that you see nothing but your own goals.
Did the example in the introduction feel a little familiar? If so, you – like many other leaders – tend to cast yourself as the hero and speak from your own goals and ambitions. Whether your message is good news or bad, you have a far better chance of a positive reception if you cast your audience as the hero. Let’s look at the introduction again – what would it sound like with the roles reversed?
‘Over the past year, we have all felt that we’ve had to run faster to keep up – and that new rules and requirements keep coming. Change is always demanding, but as you have probably noticed too, we are not working in the smartest way. We have tried to address that in the new strategy. So it is my hope and firm belief that you will find everyday work a little easier and a little more fun as we put the new plans into action. That way, you will have more time to focus on what you do best: making first-class products for our customers.’
The hero model doesn’t only apply when you speak to your own people. It applies just as much when an organisation communicates with customers, partners and the public. Here is the same message told in two ways. Imagine that a company has donated medicine to an international patient organisation. The example is fictional, but you will get the point:
The company as the hero:
‘We are proud to announce that, together with our partner, we have donated one billion units of medicine to the patient organisation. Without our donation, the organisation would not be able to reach as many parts of the world where patients lack access to treatment.’
The company as the helper:
‘The patient organisation has expanded its humanitarian program. To help close the treatment gap, we and our partner have donated one billion units of medicine over the next 10 years. The program will allow the organisation to reach parts of the world where patients lack access to treatment – and it is entirely up to the organisation how the donation is used.’
The first text is about the giver. The second is about the people it is all about.
The same goes for how organisations describe themselves. ‘We are an international company specialising in rare diseases’ is informative, but it says nothing about the reader. ‘We work to improve the lives of patients with rare diseases and their families’ makes the patient the hero, the disease the opponent and the company the helper. Patients may not care much about what the company specialises in – but they care a great deal about how it can help them.
Who the hero should be depends on who you are talking to. Your audience – whether an employee, a budget holder, a client or another key stakeholder – is looking for what they can achieve with your help. Your job is to show them how your help improves their chances of success.
Next time you need to build motivation and ownership – or change your audience’s behaviour – ask yourself four questions before you decide how to present your message:
Tailor your presentation so your audience feels you are speaking to them and have understood how your message affects their world. Then you don’t just inform – you spark interest and change behaviour. And that brings you closer to your own goal too.
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