Structuring Successful Storytelling

Applying insights from the SUCCES framework.

Good stories are powerful. They move us and motivate us like no other method of communication. They also turn abstract concepts into compelling and clear narratives that convey experiences instead of just information. And clarity is so important when reaching our audiences for many reasons, but one rises to the top: Confusion is expensive.

Confusion is expensive.

Every time our audiences don’t grasp or understand what we’re trying to communicate, it costs us time, resources, talent allocation, and donor alignment. That makes it critical for us to get story right. Fortunately, we don’t have to wonder how to get it right. That’s because good story structure doesn’t happen by accident. It’s strategic, purposeful, and orchestrated. It’s also something you can do (or simply get better at). Here’s how.

Good story telling has a cohesive framework

There are as many frameworks for storytelling as there are stories to tell. We enjoy sharing “the SUCCES framework” from Chip and Dan Heath (from their phenomenal book Made to Stick, Random House, 2007), but there is not one framework that rules them all. However, a framework of some sort is non-negotiable.

The other point that is important to keep in mind is that one or two elements below will likely be the focal point of each communication piece, which will diminish (or even leave out) some of the others. You can’t always be “unexpected.” You won’t always have an intense focus on “credibility.” It’s a balancing act that requires you to think carefully about which areas you want to shine most. That said, let’s jump in.

The SUCCES Framework:

1. Simple

Simple here doesn’t mean “dumbed down.” It refers to reaching the core – the central component – of an idea. Just like your organization should have one North Star (your mission statement), every communication piece you send to audiences should have one simple North Star. It will start with drafts full of concepts, but it must end with one clear and simple objective.

Every communication piece you send to audiences should have one simple North Star.

In 2025, when we changed our ministry’s name from Josh McDowell Ministry to Sightline, we had a daunting task on our hands. We needed a simple mission statement that encompassed who we had been for 65 years, who we were continuing to be, and all within the often very complex world of Christian apologetics and biblical worldview. However, because we knew we were looking for the core of our identity, we were able to collectively weed out both the superfluous and the seemingly important to reach the North Star: “Cutting through cultural confusion so people see Jesus clearly.”

Everything we do and create emanates from this simple and clear mission.

2. Unexpected

When you open and close a knowledge gap in an unforeseen way, you have achieved the unexpected (often referred to as creating an “a-ha” moment). One of our favorite examples of this is a brief video from Charity Water. In the 30-second spot, a young man leaps from a diving board and performs perfect Olympic-style maneuvers in mid-air. It’s not until the last moment that you see the pool is empty. The screen snaps to black with the message, “water changes everything” in bold type. This is followed by the statistic: “Six people die every minute without clean water.” You likely didn’t know that statistic, you weren’t expecting the empty pool, and now you’re ready to learn more about what they do.

3. Concrete

We’re concrete when we make a message clear and understandable for our audience. Unfortunately, we are our own worst enemy here. We know so much about our objectives and goals, we end up writing, “Help us reach our goal of sending 50,000 Bibles to Africa!” That is the goal, but it’s not clear to the donor what his or her specific donation accomplishes. Now consider, “Every dollar results in a family receiving their first Bible.” No ambiguity there.

4. Credible

You are credible when you tie your message to the truth-tellers your audiences trust most. This could be an expert authority (doctor, field expert, professor), an aspirational authority (influencer, industry leader, CEO), or an anti-authority (a non-authority with lived experience – think, testimonial from the everyman). When it comes to authority, you need to ask questions like, “who is best fit to help others see the importance of the need?”

There is also credibility that relies less on a person and more on vivid details or statistics that validate your claim. This is a little harder to visualize, so here’s an example. Let’s say you help connect the homeless with local shelters. If your statistic was “37% of homeless people don’t know where their nearest shelter is due to lack of awareness”, it could be restated as, “that’s like choosing which four out of every eleven people get to sleep safely tonight.” That makes a statistic vivid and credible.

5. Emotional

It’s not enough to “create emotion” when reaching audiences. As an organization, you are seeking to make people care by inspiring feelings that lead to action. In other words, emotion is never the goal; it needs a purpose.

Let’s pick up the homeless example above. When you reach out to potential donors who have already expressed interest in your organization, imagine a lineup of eleven people on a postcard or a digital ad with the headline, “Which four should have a safe place to sleep tonight?” That creates an immediate emotional connection and opens the door to identifying the problem as well as how donors can help.

Some key thoughts to keep in mind about creating emotion is that you always want to illustrate your point with one individual or a small group at most. People don’t emotionally connect with numbers and percentages, but they do connect with individuals. You also want to ensure you’re featuring what matters mostto your donors. There are many facets to all the work you do, but only a few that really resonate with your donors. Do you know what those are? How are you illustrating them with emotion? These are important questions.

6. Story

One of the reasons we love the model from the Heath brothers is that in a model about storytelling, story is the last component. As they describe it, story is the wrapping paper around the gift that contains one or more of the other SUCCES elements. Here are some important things to keep in mind in building a story for your audiences.

Stories are vehicles, so they need a destination.

First, stories are vehicles, so they need a destination. They need to be outcome focused. So, you need to always be asking, “what action do you want them to take from encountering this story?”

• Do you want them to take a courageous step forward?
• Do you want to build connection and affinity with your mission?
• Do you want to tap into their spirit of innovation to help achieve breakthrough?

You can only have one plot, so you need to know how you want them to move forward from the story.

Second, you must make the audience part of the story. Phrases like “together, we’re…”, “you’re a part of…” are incredibly important so that the story becomes part of their journey.

Lastly, you can never forget that your audience is the ultimate hero of the story, not you or your brand. The audience is changing the world, expanding the mission and so on. They must feel like they’re the hero, every time.

AI and future of story structure

Any article on storytelling would be remiss if it didn’t at least touch on AI. We’ve talked a lot about this with colleagues and even led a few workshops on AI in messaging. We’ll keep it to brass tacks here.

We think approaching and using AI can be broken down into three categories: Celebration, Caution, and Concern.

1. Celebration: What we can celebrate about AI is that it can be a powerful tool when relegated as “Assisted Intelligence.” When you provide it with a well-informed and detailed prompt, you can get a great start on an outline or brainstorm guide.
2. Caution: However, going beyond outlines and guides puts us in an area of caution. Regardless at how good you are at “prompt engineering” (telling it what to do), AI can hallucinate (state things as facts that don’t even exist), it can present contradictory claims as true. It can even plagiarize. So, as long as output (actual outcome from AI agent) doesn’t equal input (intended outcome from user), there is caution.
3. Concern: Left unchecked, it can quickly move to concern. The biggest concern (for the purposes of this article) is that the more you choose to lean on AI agents, the more you will have to rely on them in the future. Once your output pace gets faster because of AI, you can’t really go back without major repercussions. But the pace issue is the secondary to this: Once you outsource a skill like writing and storytelling, you become weaker at the skill naturally. Some of the most important advice you can keep in mind is this: Only outsource a skill that you’re willing to lose.

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Brock Anderson is Vice President of Content and Shelley Komoszewski is Vice President of Strategic Engagement for Sightline, a ministry of Cru. Sightline exists to cut through cultural confusion, so people see Jesus clearly. Connect with the ministry at sightlineministry.org