Do you ever noticed how quickly a conversation moves from hearing the proposal to assessing the merits of the specific idea? When a new initiative grabs the attention of your HR group and ends up in your meeting for approval, have you noticed how rapidly everyone tries to figure out how to get everyone on board with it? How might you improve these conversations to ensure these ideas are rigorously evaluated by you and your team?

WHAT’S THE ISSUE?

In an article titled Working Backwards Through Stories: How Amazon’s PowerPoint Ban Helped Build Better Products, author Michael Goitein recounts an interesting change that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made. He banned PowerPoint from proposal presentations and instead required one-page narratives. Why did Bezos do that? He wanted to drive better idea generation and evaluation. Bezos wrote in an email, “PowerPoint-style presentations somehow give permission to gloss over ideas, flatten out any sense of relative importance, and ignore the interconnectedness of ideas.”

If you are thinking it is not PowerPoint per se but rather the kind of thinking that PowerPoint structure fosters, you would be correct. Fragmented word groups in bullet lists leave listeners searching for a way to—literally—connect the dots. Ambiguous, broad slide headings provide little guidance on how to view the subsequent content.

Companies before Bezos’ time noted similar issues. In 1998, the director of planning at 3M pondered how the company could turn its strategic plans from a simple list of “good things to do” to a compelling plan. That plan had to convey critical relationships and the logic or rationale that made them so important. He believed that the seemingly clean-looking PowerPoint bullet points camouflaged the absence of those key elements. More importantly, he felt that creating bulleted slides did not drive the kind of thinking necessary for effective strategic planning.

WHAT’S THE RECOMMENDATION?

Writing a relatable story addresses those issues. Both Amazon and 3M noted how narratives forced better thinking and demanded connections. That’s because nearly every story is built around some sort of trouble or predicament that is ultimately resolved. And there must be a convincing thread that links the two. As listeners, we not only seek this clear connection but also want a clear, compelling understanding of the trouble. PowerPoint bullets tend to hide unclear thinking and relationships, while stories depend on relationships and exposing their dynamics.

Why? We “get” stories. We’ve been hearing and telling them for millennia. Since we were young, we inherently recognized that solutions (“Mommy, I punched Jimmy at school.”) required an explanation of the trouble (“’cause he stole my baseball bat.”). The flow is natural to us, easily fitting with how the brain processes information.

WHAT’S THE BETTER QUESTION?

When we watch a movie or read a book, the storytellers must first convince us that the central conflict is worth caring about. If they don’t convince us, we turn off the movie or close the book. If they do convince us that the trouble is serious, then we ask, “Why are they doing that?” if the protagonist’s plan doesn’t resolve the issue. We cry out if the protagonist is about to make a really bad decision. Why is he walking into that trap? Don’t do it! When we detect gaps in the logic of the story, our questioning begins.

Now, back to the business world. A project manager arranges a meeting with you and your leadership team to get approval for their idea. If you require the presenters to use a narrative form, you will have a clearer line of sight into the questions you should ask.

Rather than getting pulled into discussions about the elements and worthiness of the idea (don’t jump to the ending of the story!), you can naturally and appropriately (re)focus your questions. Questions such as:

• Is there clarity regarding the current state (the “once upon a time”)?
• Is the problem (trouble/predicament) unambiguous?
• What’s the compelling need to resolve this problem (why should I care)?
• What will tell us this problem is resolved (is the challenge clear)?
• What problem will we create if we solve this problem (do we understand the complexity)?
• What’s the ultimate goal (central driver and greater consequence)?

test the soundness and rationale of the story you are hearing. And if answers to your questions reveal gaps rather than connections, there’s no point in questioning the specifics of the idea.

WHAT’S THE TAKEAWAY?

Requiring stories or narratives fosters better thinking on the part of the proposer. It also promotes better questioning on the part of the approver (you). Asking questions that test the logic of the narrative results in business or strategic outcomes having a much happier ending.

Interested in building your fluency in asking the better question? You can learn more about Asking the Better Question workshop offering here.