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Storytelling lives from the Gestalt

Fifty percent of daily business should consist of conveying the results of the other fifty percent. Already Henry Ford was aware of the importance of advertising. For every dollar you want to put into your business, you should prepare one dollar to tell the other people that you have invested one dollar. He was even not discouraged by the fact that at least half of the advertising was wasted money, because you can not know which half. If you eventually decide to communicate, then you need a story, then the story needs a Gestalt in order to find more easily the storyline and to be better understood.

There are endless shapes in the design. Geometric shapes can usually be further dynamized by turning and distorting. As food for thought, we begin with the following simple versions.

  • Triangle
    The three corners make the triangle a versatile form. It is trend-setting, demanding attention, bundling, dispersing, expanding and much more. If you let your eyes wander, then you will find roofs, street signs, pencil tips but also river deltas and mountains. Everything can be reduced to triangles. If you look for your thread, then the story can begin at the foot of the mountain, develop from camp to camp, until the summit is stormed – but where the story does not end, since you still have to go down the hill.
    The triangle offers many such opportunities to spin the thread in such a way that the corresponding emotions are created and well anchored and remembered by the target group.
  • Rectangle
    The flat quadrangle provides an attachment point for all cultures, whether explored from left or right. It occupies an area, creates a base, encloses, excludes, creates order, has length and width, provides stability and much more. Many man-made things are rectangular, such as football fields, boxes, screens, picture frames, book pages and the plan of an apartment. A good story offers the target group a defined space with a comprehensible distribution. So you enter a story through the front door and find the hallway with its adjoining rooms. The path leads to the left through every room in which one topic is positioned, in order to leave the apartment at the end through the front door.
    The rectangle should consist of 5plusminus2 simple chambers, which are filled with content and ensure that the target group will afterwards remember the right things with a high probability.
  • Circle
    The simplest and most effective shape has no beginning and no end, no up and down, no front and no back, no superior and inferior. The circle is perfect, complete, protective, balanced, and timeless. One of the most important inventions was certainly the wheel that allows our vehicles to roll smoothly, providing watches a daily repetitive path, offers plates and cups ergonomics, providing herds, packs and groups the safest, because shortest, outer surface, and gave communities, like the Round Table of King Arthur, a hierarchy-free space. With a circle you have a harmonious shape that everyone imagines to be a perfect round. Politics have little space. Beginning and end create less discussion material, because you can get in anywhere and get out at any time.
    The circle creates a space that facilitates the understanding and approval of the target group.
  • Square
    The equal sides, four equal angles, equal diagonals and symmetry are making the square a special case of the rectangle (see above). No matter on which side it stands, it always appears the same. Additionally it has much of a circle due to its symmetry. It conveys stability, peace and security. Squares are rarely found in nature. Even everyday objects are less often square than one would think – only for example grids, tables, chairs, pictures, signs, cubes, post-its and chess boards. The themes of an action can be cleverly distributed on a checkered surface, expanded as desired, told from different perspectives with surprising features and quit at various points.
    The square pattern can be easily remembered, reproduced, and correspondingly extended with ones own ideas.
  • Organic shapes
    Nature creates shapes that can not be easily described. These abstract shapes are difficult to convey. For this reason, everyone makes up its own shape. Organic shapes are of natural origin, messy, difficult to control, adaptable and self-organizing. They are associated with fluids, vast amounts of constituents and masses of living things. They enclose with a huge outer surface and relatively small inner spaces. If it’s all about content, then this figure disturbs, because everyone imagines its own structure and is distracted by it.
    Organic shapes are less suitable for conveying facts. They are ideal if you want to evoke impressions, feelings, approval and commitment, because everyone appropriates the shape, which fosters an affirmative consent.

Bottom line: The design of messages begins in the mind of the author and should take into account the targeted audience. In the interest of quick content creation and to facilitate understanding, geometrical shapes are available. The triangle, the rectangle, the circle, the square, but also the organic form is simple tools to guide yourself and the target audience through the messages. The meaning of each Gestalt underlines or hinders the message. So it makes sense to find the shape of the story in advance, as storytelling lives from the Gestalt.

ProCons of networks

Increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) can no longer be mastered with the rigid structures of the past. Collaboration takes place across borders, wherever you look. The related structures are constantly changing and subsist on self-organizing actors who build, use and eventually resolve the necessary relationships. The result is a more or less dense network. Aside from today’s needs, where everything is just one click away, there are some arguments in favor of and against the use of networks.

The following ProCons affect not only networks but all types of communities.

Pros

The benefits cover more than just the economic interests of the companies.

  • Competence advantages
    The network draws its strength from the purposeful connection of resources and capabilities. The participants‘ intrinsic motivation provides the network with a long-term advantage ahead of other forms, which on the one hand require a lot of setup time and on the other hand never have comparable access to this amount of competencies.
  • Information advantages
    The actors provide a lot of information. This includes experience and knowledge about different markets, customers, products, technologies and, above all, business processes. By sharing this information (push vs. pull), they reach all network participants at a relatively high speed.
  • Resource advantages
    The actors already provide a variety of resources – material and immaterial goods and especially people. Contrary to other forms of organization, the network offers an adjustable openness that makes it possible to expand resources faster. Just the use of these resources of the actors provide means that otherwise would have to be procured with much effort. In addition, this tool is usually better suited that is brought by the craftsman.
  • Social advantages
    Getting to know like-minded people is a huge advantage for the actors. The sense of community offers an environment in which you can expect more pleasant working conditions and a trustworthy cooperation due to the same interests.
  • Economic advantages
    Looking at the entire network, there are many savings for the company. Cost advantages arise when the actors already bring additionally to their commitment many resources that do not need to be purchased. The combined competence accelerates the business and reduces the risks. Practicing self-organization in a network avoids delays caused by a hierarchical structure with its long decision-making and communication paths.

Cons

Against networks speak especially apparent extra efforts, unpredictability and the difficult control.

  • Time
    Even with all the advantages, networking requires active involvement of its members. The open procedures and the lack of centralized control require other efforts of the participants, which are perceived at first glance as additional expenses. However, much higher overall savings can be made for the company.
  • Redundancies
    Even with a lot of engagement in disseminating information, there can be more double work in the self-organized network than in a tayloristic organization. The lack of control can lead to a competition for the best idea that would be wasteful.
  • Increased communication effort
    The multiplicity of actors increases the coordination effort, which can even not be avoided with agile approaches. New insights and experiences simply have to be shared, absorbed and processed. This effort is the price for a lot of advantages.
  • Cooperation issues
    Of course, because of the variety of characters, there will not only be sympathy, but also antipathies that can burden collaboration and trust and eventually lead to an increased need for mediation. This makes team building an important exercise.
  • Lack of control
    A strong driver for the formation of a network is the intrinsic appeal for each participant. Leadership could quickly disturb. At the same time, a network also needs a direction. Without centralized control, the network might take longer to reach an agreement.
  • Information loss
    The open structure of a network and the frequent participation of individual members in different networks automatically lead to the leakage of information. Lack of secrecy could endanger the network.

Bottom line: Although many aspects speak against creation and participation in a network, you have to face the fact that a VUCA world creates new conditions that function in a way that cannot be covered by traditional approaches. The competence, information, resource social, and economic advantages are arguments for the use of networks. At the same time, appropriate measures have to minimize the risks.