How communication strategy can create change

 You’re probably familiar with Oliver Twist,  who was brave enough to ask ‘Please sir, I want more’ after he’d finished his food.

But do you know the real life story of what happened to a group of hungry American women when they wanted more?

Picture the scene.

It’s 1868. 

Charles Dickens was in the US and was due to give a reading, organised by the Press Club, at Delmonico’s restaurant in New York.

No women were invited to this event.

And at the time women in the US were only allowed to dine in restaurants with a male companion.

Why?

I’m not sure. 

Society was certainly a different place, then.

Was it thought that without men, women would get confused with this eating malarkey and shove a roast potato up their nose or in their ear rather than their mouth?

Would it all be too much for women to coordinate cutlery, eating, drinking and talking in public without the men there?

But back to the story.

One female reporter, Jane Cunningham Croly, stepped up.

She took issue with the press club.

“Oh, go on, then” they said.

“You can come. You just need to eat behind a curtain in the restaurant.”

No, I’m not making this up.

This is what they said.

Croly refused.

Two days later she and twelve other women entered Delmonico's.

They spoke to the owner, Lorenzo Delmonico, and explained that they wanted to dine without a man at their table.

He agreed.

And Croly and her friends had lunch and what was the first meeting of the first American professional women’s association, Sororis.  

So, why am I sharing this story?

Because sometimes we need to use our words a few times to make an impact.

In different ways.

With different people.

In order to get a different result.

The Press Club was arguably a more male dominated world in 1868.

And so Croly chose her battles.

She took her fight to a different setting.

And got the result she wanted.

Communication is as much about patience and strategy as it is about choosing and using your words.

How can you use your words to create the effect and impact you’re after?

Who can you share these words with?

And what do you have the power to change with your communication?