The Dorothy Effect

Michelle recently delivered our storytelling training to an internationally renowned media company. The topic of the training was “Talking Tech to Non-Techies” and the objective was exactly as it sounds: helping those whose workdays and tasks are steeped in technical expertise to find the right words to communicate with individuals, teams and bosses in other departments and beyond. She shares more about the two days…

I am not a techie. I am a jack-of-one trade, that trade being words and storytelling. 

I spent the first two decades of my career working in the editorial departments of newspapers and magazines and now I freelance for different publications, write novels and coach other writers. 

So it was a little daunting to consider how I was going to communicate my message and successfully deliver the training to groups of employees who understand reams of tech terms like “squirrel” and “gherkin” – they don’t mean what you think they do! – but who might not know what the 1-3-1 structure is within the storytelling sphere.

There was also the matter of each session being split into three intensive hours and being delivered across four separate sessions; two in the morning, two in the afternoon. 

Now, as I am sure everyone who’s worked a day in their life will agree, your energy levels can shift like quicksand as the hours tick by towards home time and the post-lunch dip is very real. Besides getting the point of the training across effectively, how was I also going to elicit and maintain enthusiasm from all the attendees across the two days while making sure my own energy levels didn’t drop?

In a nutshell: The Dorothy Effect

Now, The Dorothy Effect can mean different things to different people. 

According to Wikipedia, it most commonly refers to “the psychological or philosophical realisation that the solution, power, or peace you have been searching for elsewhere has been within your control or inside you all along” – as demonstrated by Dorothy’s journey in The Wizard of Oz, the film that gave The Dorothy Effect its label.

However, I’m now repurposing The Dorothy Effect to describe a pivotal point in the Talking Tech to Non-Techies training when I could say to myself with confidence: “You’ve got this”.

The moment came fairly early on in the first morning session amid a discussion on the usefulness of deploying Hollywood loglines in workplace communication.

Loglines are 27-word pitches (yes, for some inexplicable reason, 27 words or less is all that’s allowed) that producers use to sell movie ideas to studios and following the structure can be a useful way of editing down what you need to get across in a succinct and clear way.

To illustrate the point, I shared some slides of logline examples. I’m not going to give away the wording on the slides so as not to spoil the fun for future attendees, but when the film poster for the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz popped onto the screen at a specific moment, the energy in the room soared.

People smiled, some laughed out loud, knowing looks were exchanged and chatter broke out. The buzz that Dorothy and her Yellow Brick Road chums created was infectious.

I knew in that moment that however nervous I might be starting the remaining three sessions, and whatever the level of energy in the room was, I could rely on Dorothy to lift us up and keep us going. And she did. The Wizard of Oz poster had the same effect on the remaining three groups: smiles, nods and happy appreciation. 

What my version of The Dorothy Effect ultimately proves is just how powerful familiarity can be in storytelling communication. When you use examples and analogies that other people can relate to immediately, it puts you on such an even footing that it doesn’t matter if your knowledge of their sector is limited or vice versa. They know the point you’re trying to make when you deploy a well-known reference because it sparks a connection for them or triggers a memory.

That’s exactly what The Wizard of Oz poster did. The groups immediately got the point I was trying to make because it was an image so familiar to them. Thanks to The Dorothy Effect, they nailed the training, and so did I.

Through great training by great trainers, we empower individuals to communicate with clarity. From upskilling technical teams in storytelling and communication to building confidence in senior leaders, our training drives performance and delivers results.