Tesfa Talks

  Why Communication Often Fails I believe that many communication challenges within families, social settings, organizations, and even politics, stem from one fundamental issue: how we communicate . It is often not what we say that determines whether communication is successful, but how we say it. The way we present ideas, concepts, project impacts, and research findings largely determines whether our message is understood or lost. We have all encountered highly proficient professionals (experts in their technical fields) who nevertheless struggle to communicate effectively. They have deep knowledge in their fields, but they lack the skill to communicate their message effectively and therefore they fail to be understood. When Expertise Becomes a Barrier Imagine, for example, a technical project expert representing an organization at a high-level event or appearing in the media. The topic is important, the project impact is significant. But the presentation is flooded with...

Having worked as a communications and knowledge management professional for over 13 years across a diverse portfolio of donor-funded programs in Ethiopia, storytelling in development has helped us demonstrate the impact of our work. It has become clear that this approach is no longer sufficient and must evolve. Our audiences: communities, donors, youth, partners, and policymakers are becoming more empowered and started asking deeper questions: Why does this work matter? Who owns the story? What truly changed and for whom? To stay relevant, credible, and human, we must rethink how we tell our stories and transform it beyond merely reporting our impact. Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Stories One of the biggest limitations in organizational storytelling is reliance on a single template. While consistency matters, inflexibility dulls creativity. An effective way to transform our storytelling, I believe, is by introducing multiple story formats: from youth-led change stories and ...