The Missing Character

who will step into this role?

You may know the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot (For theatre buffs, Keanu Reeves is currently starring in a New York performance of Beckett’s famous work and you can read a review here). The play centres around two characters waiting endlessly for someone who never arrives. Godot never appears, yet his absence gives the play its entire shape. The missing character is the one who holds everything together.

It struck me recently that organisations often forget this. We work hard to tell a complete story, what we have achieved, who we have helped, where we are going next. But in doing so, we sometimes close the story off. We leave no space for the person on the other side of the conversation to step in.

The truth is that the most powerful stories are unfinished. They contain a gap, an absence, a missing character that the listener instinctively feels invited to become.

Think about it in leadership terms. When we describe our strategy as already locked down, our teams nod politely but remain passive. When we instead say, “Here is the problem we have not yet solved, and here is where you come in,” people lean forward. They sense the opening. They begin to see themselves inside the story.

It is the same in fundraising. If a charity says, “We have already done X, Y, and Z,” the donor admires the achievement but may feel like a spectator. But if the charity says, “We cannot finish this story without you,” the donor becomes the missing character, the one who ensures the ending is hopeful rather than tragic.

Leaving space in your story is not manipulation. It is honesty. Every worthwhile story of change requires more than one actor. Even Waiting for Godot, a play about endless delay, is a reminder that the absence of a character can be more powerful than the presence of one.

This is exactly why the Start With Your Story workshop includes a highly powerful donor story. It shows how a supporter can step in as the missing character and transform the outcome. Participants often say this is the moment when the lights go on and they see storytelling in a whole new way.

So here is the challenge for leaders this month. When you share your organisation’s story, do not tie up all the loose ends. Leave a deliberate gap. Name the problem still unsolved. Show what is at stake. And then ask, “Who will step into this role?”

Because whether it is a colleague, a partner, or a supporter, someone out there is waiting for the cue that it is their turn to walk on stage.

We do not need to tell stories that are already finished. We need to tell stories that invite others to play their part.

That missing character could be closer than you think.

If you would like to explore this further, join me in London on 13 November for the Start With Your Story workshop at St Martin in the Fields on 13 November. You can reserve your place here.