Hook, Line & Thinker - Learn How to Communicate Like a Journalist

Learn how to communicate like a journalist

We live in an age of infobesity: we’re all increasingly bombarded with more and more information with less time to process it.  For research and insight professionals, the rising challenge is to cut through, be heard and ensure that our work delivers value and impact.  That’s where we can learn from the best storytellers, particularly journalists.

Our clients and stakeholders need to see the wood for the trees, clearly understand the key ‘story’ behind the data and be guided towards making the right business decisions.  This highly practical workshop will enable you to communicate compelling research and insight stories that are clear, memorable, actionable and audience-focused, and that pass the ‘elevator’ test.

You will leave with concrete actions to implement back in the workplace, helping you to address the key business issues and answer the priority questions of your stakeholders.  The over-riding aim is to help you to increase your impact and influence, raise your profile and improve others’ perception of the value that you deliver.

Learning outcomes

• Learn how to better overcome the increasing challenge of ‘infobesity’
• Apply the fundamentals of effective communication to your own stakeholder-focused, action-orientated & memorable communication (emails, reports, debriefs, pitches and presentations)
• Appreciate the importance of clarity – of message, purpose & audience – and how this drives everything else: medium, length, amount of detail, tone of voice, language, etc.
• Recognise the importance of segmenting your audience and of clarifying & managing their expectations
• Identify your key messages & insights and then apply a journalistic approach to communicating them, using data to support not complicate your story
• Recognise the importance of ‘visualising the journey’ upfront
• Storyboard your messages & insights within the most effective narrative structure
• Understand the importance of having a compelling point of view that passes both the ‘elevator’ and ‘so what?’ tests
• Appreciate the power of design & visualisation to aid understanding & memorability
• Enable your audience to take firm action and make informed decisions as a result of hearing or reading your communication

Who would benefit

This interactive, action-focused workshop is equally appropriate for those on both the client- and agency-side, and suitable for all levels of experience.

Daniel Wain specialises in learning and development / HR consultancy, and trains & coaches in a range of business and relationship skills. Prior to founding Daniel Wain Consulting Limited in 2007, he was a researcher for 20 years.  After working for IMR (now part of the WPP Group), he joined Research International (RI) in 1992.  Danny spent his first decade with RI as a researcher then business developer, focusing upon customer relationship research, service measurement and mystery shopping.  His clients included Royal Mail, Audi, Boots, Virgin, Chanel, Next and BT. His last role at RI was as Worldwide Director of Learning & Development (L&D), responsible for developing and driving RI’s L&D strategy across its global network.  He is a Fellow of the MRS, the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and the Royal Society of Arts.