Great messaging is key to great communication

Internationally acclaimed diplomat and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger used to open his press conferences by asking, "Does anybody have any questions for my answers?" Witty and clever, yes, and the implication was clear: Kissinger had his key messages intact and he was going to bring them out with marked confidence. Good communication is not simply blabbering away using high-sounding words delivered with a twang. Good communicators don’t wing it. They take the time to research, craft, review, and re-review what they have to say. This means building their communication around well-defined key messages.

Successful communication hinges on precision. It calls for focus. In advertising, it is called single-minded proposition; in public relations, the core idea. If you are multi-directional and your thoughts are spread out too thinly in your audience’s mind map, you could be remembered differently or incorrectly. At worst, the targeted public will reach a conclusion other than what was intended. Focusing your communication requires the development and consistent use of key messages. The discipline is deceptively simple, but once mastered, will make every communication process more effective.

Gerard Braud, an international trainer and speaker, avers that a good key message clearly and simply states who and what you are. It expresses your value and benefits to your audience (what’s in it for the reader or the listener), and shows you care about your audience (let us feel the love). It is expressed in a conversational manner (remember it and say it verbatim), quotable (a la Martin Luther King’s "I have a dream"), and can be projected using analogies (Can we learn it in our heads? Can it live in our hearts?). A message is delivered badly if it contains PR gobbledygook, jargon and too many qualifying explanations, is cluttered with facts and figures, and is evidently in a "please everyone" mode.

In key messaging, you want everyone to understand the same basic information. Each individual may recall different aspects, but they should all be able to sum up your message consistently in one- or two-liners. If they are properly developed and delivered, those statements will be your key messages. To be useful, key messages must be few in number, usually no more than two or three, short and concise, generally stated in no more than a sentence or two and must be written down.

If you have more than one umbrella or core story, if you have too many messages, chances are, you lose focus. If your messages are a paragraph each, you will not be effective. In writing your messages down, make sure they are brief, consistent, concise, understandable, and believable.

Open, Sustain, Recap

The basic presentation structure is: Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you just told them. That, in a nutshell, is the correct use of key messages. You should start any communication with your fitted proposition, refer to them throughout, and then recap with them at the closing stage. As American actor George Burns says, "The secret to good communication is to have a good beginning, a good middle, and a good ending, and to have the elements as close together as possible."

You will find key messages especially valuable in encounters where other issues are likely to come up, such as internal-communication interfaces or press roundtables. If you have formalized your key messages, you have something to return to so you can keep the discussion on track. Key messages also provide a template for the rest of the information you want to share. All the information you want to include should support your key messages. If you organize your communication in that fashion, you will find your presentation easier to mount and more understandable for your audience. In addition, if you have to use complementary communication implements, you should convey the same key messages. They must follow an integrated framework.

To be truly effective, you must run through your spiel or review your notes. The best actors become better actors because they rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse. They go through rigid practice sessions to improve their dexterity. There is just something about saying things out loud that brings a clarity that is not always possible just by looking at the written word. If you find that your messages do not flow off the tongue easily, redraft them. Test the messages with groups or individuals you trust to see if they are comprehensible and credible.

Many people find the practice of key messaging to be so basic that they don’t think they need to do anything differently. But truly great communicators make them a staple element in their preparation. The process doesn’t need to be tedious, but the effort of thinking about what your "take out" messages should be, writing them down and then organizing your offerings around them will pay huge dividends in the end.

In The Line Of Fire

Key messaging is particularly vital in a question-and-answer (Q&A) assembly and, as Jerry Weissman says in his book In the Line of Fire, there are two trends that are becoming critical to success in Q&A sessions – the first is honesty and the second is the ability of the communicator to answer a query satisfactorily. There is no doubting Weissman’s key message: tell the truth.

The operative word in the first trend is "handle," meaning how to deal with rough questions. While providing an answer is an integral part of that "handling," every answer you give to every question you get must be honest, straightforward, and projects your identified key messages. Weissmann believes that more and more people will be singing the same tune in the future when presenters and spokespeople are counseled to answer questions.

The second trend (the growing skill to answer and stop) refers to the notion that "no presenter is under any obligation to respond to an accusation that is untrue in any other way than with a complete refutation. If you are attacked with a question that contains or implies an inaccuracy, come back with a simple but direct rebuttal, with your key messages intact."

In other words, with particularly dangerous or unfair questions, Weissman supposes it is fine to borrow the famous anti-drug slogan and "just say no" and move on to mouth your story.

Recipe For Great Key Messages

Karen Friedman, an award-winning TV news anchor and reporter on ABC, CNN, and the Today show, among others, believes each person has what it takes to be a great communicator. You just have to tap into that inherent potential. Wittily, she likens the process of key messaging to cooking. You need to add your own touches to give your recipe a little zing so people savor it and come back for more. You can follow this communication success recipe a la Friedman:

Ingredients:

1 cup dry Meaning
1 cup Engagement (cut into small pieces)
1/3 cup spicy Simplicity
1 cup (packed) Sincerity
2 level tablespoonfuls of Attitude
12-pound center-cut key message (KM) fillet
Sprinkle with Enlightenment

Preparation:

Preheat audience to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Boil Meaning, Engagement and Simplicity seasoning in small saucepan 3 minutes. Sprinkle Sincerity and Attitude on both sides with gusto. Place KM on center sheet and move forward. Bake until listener or reader is drooling for about 10 minutes. Transfer to eternal memory platter and serve with reckless clarification.

Makes unlimited servings.

Review:
A 100-percent guarantee you will have this recipe again.
Friedman encourages communicators to seriously consider this tried-and-tested success recipe. As she says, "Good communication driven by clear messages is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after."

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E-mail bongo@vasia.com or bongo@campaignsandgrey.net for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.