Annual reports: Analytics, bests, greatest accomplishments and the power of storytelling

Several years ago when I project managed annual and quinquennial reports for a health sciences university, I experienced the importance of publications such as newsletters and annual reports.

Work on a quinquennial report began and a committee had been formed to reconstruct the organizations's landmark "bests, and greatest accomplishments. Today I'm sure analytics would be an important part of similar conversations.

Due to the project timeline and the need to collect supporting materials (historic photographs to locate and compile, photo shoots to schedule), I gathered administrative newsletters from key entities, copies of campus newspapers, magazines and board minutes and began to document and sort the information they contained, making sure to include projects related to the strategic plan.

At that time the campus still had a printed campus newspaper and it made much of the task easy. Stories of importance to both internal and external entities appeared on the cover, and important institutional milestones were published above the fold. 

New programs, open houses, ribbon cutting events, statistics and awards were organized by month and year due to the constraints of a printed monthly publication. 

I compiled two seven-to-nine-page reports capturing the "bests," "greatest accomplishments" for the growing institution (divided into health care and academic reports), passed them to leadership for approval and was asked, "how did you accomplish this project?" From what i was told, the committee that had been tasked with recalling and collecting the bests & greatest content was in its beginning stages.

I have empathy for communication / marketing / PR departments today. Until the emergence of social media and online communication, there was a cost to capture and share information, including purchasing and developing film, extended timelines for printing newsletters and newspapers, individually faxing, calling or making visits to newspaper offices for each news release. However, the important items could easily be reviewed later because content was physically published for distribution on real paper instead of endless scrolling and / or online searches. 

Also, paths to completion were more easily traced because minor stories that appeared on page nine or 13 eventually moved to more prominent places in the newspaper, showing the history and key players.

Today, so much content is posted so easily to so many platforms including online newsrooms (just keep scrolling, everything appears with the same importance) for so little cost that the real value of information may become muddled. 

The softer side of many annual reports are personal stories. But good storytellers and places and time to develop the craft are not easy to find, even in the entertainment industry. I remember asking several professors at USC why they didn't write books about what they were teaching about writing. Every week after class I would leave the USC campus feeling energized, having gained writing tools that would change how I structured the information I was sharing. I felt energized even though those were long days with some classes beginning at 7:00 p.m. and ending at 10:00 p.m., and this was after I had worked a full work day in the Inland Empire, about an hour away from campus.

To show the value of the work an organization is doing, existing data is often collected, studied and shared internally, with emphasis placed on examine the past, always looking over one's shoulder.

While by their nature annual reports record their success -- a job well done -- by highlighting the past, faith in their ability to move into the future can be woven into the content through storytelling.

After the annual report's theme was chosen a group from departments on campus including marketing, public relations and philanthropy worked together to suggest and choose seven to nine stories to highlight.

As I interviewed the individuals and families who generously offered to share their stories, I asked several questions about how they had experienced the theme of the report for that year. Each feature story included a quote that used the exact word that appeared in writing on the cover, resulting in a beautiful prism highlighting the theme on every page, made stronger because the words were authentic -- real.

The report's theme was further emphasized through storytelling techniques I learned while taking screenwriting and fiction writing courses at USC.

An example is "changing in place."

One annual report feature read as simple as a family's bedtime routine, tucking in their baby at bedtime, but the story uses changing in place to show the deep impact the institution had made on the family.

Their baby had been born with a cleft palate and her doctors needed to wait a year before corrective surgery could be scheduled. Though an alarm had been installed in the baby's bedroom to alert her family if she stopped breathing, her family took turns sitting by her bedside throughout the night, every night for the entire year to make sure she was safe.

"Changing in place" is a literary technique that brings the audience into a space and shares happenings that transpire there before later bringing the character back into the same space. Though the surroundings have not changed it is as if the person is in a completely different space. Changes that have happened internally result in the person experiencing and interacting with his or her old surroundings in a completely new way.

The story begins in the baby's bedroom. The parents read a bedtime story to her as they do every night, singing a lullaby, tucking her in and dimming the lights before settling into a chair beside the baby's crib, protecting her, watching her every breath until morning.

The story then highlights care provided to the family, as told by the family, with a quote that, in their own words, restates the annual report theme.

The story ends in the same place it started, back in the baby's bedroom. It's more than a year later and the surgery has been completed. The little one has a beautiful smile. The parents read her a bedtime story, sing a lullaby, tuck her in. They then turn down the lights and leave the room, confident that she will be safe throughout the night. Changing in place. The family's lives will never be the same.

Simply told with a simple but powerful storytelling technique -- changing in place -- providing humanity and value to the numbers reporting an organization's hard work, projects completed, bests and greatest achievements accomplished.

A lesson shared by a master storyteller

From screenwriting to finance and Instant Pot groups, the number of Facebook groups I follow has grown.

I usually do a quick check of various groups to see what has been posted recently, scrolling past any drama.

A couple of weeks ago I responded to a question from a member of a screenwriting group who had asked for help with dialogue. Writing dialogue was one of the top skills I wrestled with while taking courses at USC in the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences and in the School of Cinematic Arts.

Every moment I spent on the USC campus was so amazing I think I skipped class just once or twice during the six years I attended USC while working full-time and one of those was when I was on a work trip to Africa.

After class at USC I always traveled back to the Inland Empire with at least one amazing gem learned during whatever class I was taking at the time. I took classes from several USC professors more than once, and as I look back I can think of many top things I learned from each of them that they shared only once. That's why I came to class early and often stayed in the classroom during breaks to hear questions students asked the professor during breaks.

An insight that changed how I write came from my friend and mentor, director Irving Kershner. When I shared my struggles writing dialogue with him, he said, "In every scene every character wants something. They may not say a word. What do they do to get it? Now that is interesting."

I posted this quote of Facebook in the responses to the question about how to write dialogue and the thread took off.

As I continue working on a book that I plan to adapt into a screenplay, Kersh's advice is shaping the story. What happens as storytellers follow each character is driven by what the characters want and need, and ultimately what they do; if their words are the most interesting part of the story, the story is not very interesting.

I asked Kersh once why he didn't write a book about storytelling or writing and he said he was much too active to write a book. I learned so much from him and I miss him often as I write.

The real work (fun) that happens before "Fade In"

"Out of everyone in this class, maybe seven of you will become full-time screenwriters." Wow, were there 50 people in the room? More than 70? All I remember is that the classroom was full of screenwriting and directing students who would be graduating in a few months.

While Frank Wuliger only said these words one time to our business of writing class he assured us that the others could find work in the industry. He demonstrated this through his guest speakers who loved stories and storytelling: agents and attorneys and directors, studio executives and managers. It was an amazing class (I remember "amazing" was a word he used quite often).

Another one of Frank's comments continues to haunt me. After finishing our writing program he encouraged us to do work that would put a roof over our head but that wasn't too intense. He said that he had observed many talented writers who took jobs that were so challenging that they had nothing left at the end of the workday, and never became screenwriters.

Taking screenwriting classes at USC while working full-time has helped me continue to write outside of work. But this semester I'm not in class. Writing alone after work can sometimes feel like punishment and so I've been joking with friends and colleagues—"Let's cowrite a screenplay and enter the 2013 Nicholl Fellowship competition."

Finally someone said yes. While I'd told him that if we worked together I wanted the process to begin with writing a short story (7 to 15 pages) before writing any screenplay pages and that that would save weeks of work. Rewriting pages of dialogue is not fun.

When he came back from lunch yesterday excited to show me a few screenplay pages he'd written I glanced at the first few scenes and remembered my first attempts at screenwriting. After having read about 14 books about screenwriting my words were written with enthusiasm. The protagonist made a bland appearance talking about something that was on TV.

I remembered classmates in USC's master of professional writing program who were upset when Irvin Kershner stopped them from writing screenplay pages and made them stop and think when they were as excited as racehorses wanting to run!

I started talking to my friend about storytelling. While we both write every day, the work we do is different from the purest storytelling. As I talked about what a story can be I realized I was echoing words I'd heard from mentors who had taught classes, students in those classes with hundreds of years of combined experience. My friend agreed to meet the next day at lunch and talk about the story.

I've heard the story we're writing about over the years. It was in the headines for a few months in the early 1980s. During our first meeting we talked about

• where the story should start (a topic which had come up many times in classes I'd taken). 
• who the antagonist is (not the easy answer, oh this was getting fun)! 
• controversial parts of the story that might have people talking by the water cooler after they had seen the movie. 

I mentioned that I had struggled for years to learn why audiences can watch the screen for nearly two hours and feel as if no time has passed. I shared some of the techniques that filmmakers use to do this (how to show the passage of time using images; planting and payoff and images and musical themes we could include in the story that will enchant the viewers.

My friend is a musician who composes music and I told him that learning how to write a screenplay is as complex and takes as much practice as learning to play an instrument and then learning how to write a symphony. Though I'd read those 14 books about screenwriting I didn't feel confident writing a screenplay until after taking classes and working with mentors, while struggling to create on my own. I remember telling one professor that writing a screenplay is like struggling with an attacking octopus.

We debated every part of a multitude of events and people who came together to create a story that made headlines for a few weeks in the early 1980s. While we're still not ready to begin writing the short story, we began to discover and agree on elements that make the story dramatic vs. melodromatic.

Today was the first time since Kersh helped me with my thesis that I've gone through this creative process. I'd been afraid that without him or a professor the octopus would return. But it was amazingly satisfying. And it's pretty fun to blog about too.