- The Storyteller
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- The secret to good communication—clarity and brevity
Each week, we share a practical technique to become a more effective storyteller and analyze a video that demonstrates its use in the real-world.
Quote of the week
“No one ever complains about a speech being too short!” Ira Hayes
photo: andrew neel via pexels
A clear & concise message is critical
Two weeks ago the entire OpenAI-board-firing-Sam-Altman-their-CEO saga was unfolding. Of course on a Friday afternoon!
Satya Nadella as the CEO of Microsoft had to not only respond to the developments in real time. He also had to appear on business news outlets to articulate why this didn’t pose a risk to Microsoft.
Microsoft of course had not only invested billions in OpenAI but a significant portion of their AI strategy was contingent on the partnership working out.
It didn’t help matters that Microsoft was informed barely minutes or hours before the public announcement of Altman’s firing.
This would be a major crisis for any company, but for a publicly-listed company, if not handled well, it could mean a beating for your stock price and possibly the CEO’s credibility and job.
Satya Nadella’s interview with CNBC is a textbook case of what communication consultant JD Schramm articulates as the AIM framework.
Satya’s intent was to reassure customers (his primary audience and through them I suspect analysts and investors).
Here’s the message Satya Nadella communicated in 30 secs:
“Come what may, Microsoft will be there, will continue to have the products, and lead in AI. That I think is the core message for our customers"
And how he did it is worth reflecting upon:
Audience He explicitly stated who he was communicating to
"The most important thing for me, [is] for customers to know…"
Message Satya’s message is clear and concise
“… have confidence that come what may, Microsoft will be there, will continue to have the products, and lead in AI.”
Repetition Satya reinforces explicitly through repetition
"That I think is the core message for our customers"
Story Interestingly he managed to sneak in there a vignette or brief story to build credibility when he preceded his message with this:
“Here's a […] thought experiment. Sam Altman once chose Microsoft, and he chose Microsoft again[....] Do you think that it is because of the capability of our company to be able to innovate with OpenAI”
His core intent was to reassure customers and he does it all within half a minute of a 3-minute response.
Video
In this week’s video we’ll take a look at the full 3 minute video of Satya Nadella’s CNBC interview. Some brief context to this video.
Fri Nov 17, Sam Altman was fired as the CEO of OpenAI.
Sat Nov 18, Microsoft press release affirming support for OpenAI
Sun Nov 19, Microsoft hires Altman to lead their new AI research unit
Tue Nov 21, Satya Nadella CEO appears on CNBC and Bloomberg TV
Satya and his team at Microsoft, much like the folks at Intel whose video about investing in Ohio we saw a few weeks ago, are extremely talented and have no shortage of resources or skills.
And unlike the Intel announcement, which they likely had weeks or months to prepare, this one was done in a few hours. Yet Satya kept it crisp—clear audience, intent and message and concise—well under two minutes.