1151: What Lies Beneath?

We all know that Love Actually is a political, instructional film.

Among other things, we learn what drives the UK’s foreign policy:

"I love that word, 'relationship.' Covers all manner of sins, doesn’t it? I fear that this has become a bad relationship; a relationship based on the president taking exactly what he wants and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to, um…Britain." ...

The entire emotion of Hugh Grant’s Prime Minister speech is captured and channelled through the simple, penultimate word.

Um.

But he’s not alone. The movie is brim full of characters (mostly British men of course) who are unwilling or unable to say what they actually feel...

To put it another way, Love Actually is a movie all about subtext.

And subtext is a mark of great storytelling:

As I’ve mentioned before, great stories engage when they bring an audience into the telling.

When Andrew Lincoln tells Keira Knightley that he’s taped over her wedding video, he’s really saying something completely different:

The scene is powerful and engaging because we have to work to understand the truth.

And when it lands, it lands DEEPLY.

Most business communication lacks drama, but almost all of it (outside of advertising) lacks subtext.

Clarity matters of course, but when we want people to lean in and pay attention, subtext can a powerful tool.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at ways to create it.

Nick

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This is one of 30 riffs on #Business #Storytelling. Follow me to get the series.

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