“Hamlet, but with lions.”
“Die Hard, on a bus.”
When a writer pitches a screenplay to a studio they’ll often lead with something like this, an idea that encapsulates the entire plot of their film in a way that makes it easily accessible in one bite. This give executives an easy handhold to grasp and provides a narrative to rally resources around.
This is something we can do better as improvement experts.
Too often, when our projects are concerned, instead of four-word summary of Lion King, we are like Game of Thrones fans – incapable of describing one episode without first explaining the past four seasons as well (you know who you are).
We may see the grand design being all our efforts, but we frequently lose the chance to powerfully convey why our work matters to the broader organization.
“But Thomas, my work is too complex to simply so dramatically!”
Well, that probably means you don’t understand it well enough yet. I don’t mean that to be snide, if you, while thinking of your current book of work, are struggling to create your own screenplay pitch then take that as an opportunity to dig deeper.
A great way to do this is to “think up”. Think of the stated goals and targets of the larger organization. You probably don’t have to go all the way up to the company motto, but hooking into language and themes that your broader team is using will give you a great place to start.
I usually (mentally or physically) draw up my list of projects and flag which of these top-level outcomes each could conceivably touch. Now try reframing your projects cumulative impact with these in mind.
“Well, why would I even want to boil down my gorgeously detailed work?”
Let’s talk about that. What are you losing by NOT having a clear pitch for your work?
Clearly the details of experiment outcomes, metric definitions, and RACI diagrams are where the proverbial rubber meets the road, it’s at these contact points with reality that we learn. I am certainly not denigrating the need for these things.
However when this is ALL we do, we sacrifice is something equally vital – momentum. A well crafted vision, that engages people without requiring familiarity with the details helps recruit executives, gain budget, attention, and will let you LEAP (instead of shuffle) toward the next improvement.
What do you think? Have you experienced and dramatic wins (or fails) based on how you packaged up your work for executive consumption? Leave a comment, we’d love to hear your story. Hungry for more? Check out some of our past posts on pitching.
Happy simplifying!