Crafting a clear and compelling message

Quote of the week

“Words have power. Words are power. Words could be your power.” Mohammed Qahtani

Crafting a clear and compelling message

"What was that about?"

How many times have you come out of a meeting wondering what it is the speaker wanted to communicate with you?

I've been in far too many meetings, whether a quarterly all-hands meeting or a product line update or a layoff announcement, where I was even more confused and at times fearful after the meeting.

Why is it so hard to get your message across clearly?

There are two distinct reasons for this. Let’s deal with the worst one first.

Lack of clarity on the part of the speaker—whether because they are unprepared, verbose or incoherent all of which can lead to poor outcomes

Lack of context for the audience. Particularly for those of us who are well prepared, it's easy to assume that our audience has the same context that we do. So we deliver our message and then wonder why it missed the mark.

Simply asserting, "We are exiting the Japanese market" which while clear enough will raise more questions in the listeners mind without further context.

Worse yet saying "We have to be more innovative or take more risks" is neither clear nor specific and definitely unhelpful without context.

How can it be done better?
Storytelling is a powerful way to get not only your message across, but to provide context which will enable both clarity and hopefully faster buy-in.

And such storytelling can be done succinctly and clearly. Before you nail down your message, two important pre-requisites need to be met

AUDIENCE Clarity on who your audience is—usually this is more than one, so be clear who is your primary, secondary and possibly tertiary audience

INTENT What is your intent with one or more of these audiences. What do you want them to know, do or act upon once you've delivered your message?

Let's go back to the example of "taking risks or being innovative." If your goal is to get your team or company to generate new products or sources of revenue, by "taking risks and being innovative," the specifics of your message will be different to

• your company board (who may have to approve expenditure), from

• that to your C-suite or general managers (who'll have to lead the teams) or from that to

• your R&D or product teams (who have to execute the actual innovation.)

Such an audience, intent and message framework, originally articulated by Lynn Russell and Mary Munter in their 2001 Book, Guide to Presentations is an invaluable resource to iteratively refine your message to your audience.

The best messages are short and easy to remember. As you will see in this issue's video of former IBM CEO Ginny Rometty using a personal story to deliver a clear message to her audience.

Regardless of how clear you believe your message is, test it and practice so that your audience, hears a crisp message to achieve your desired intent.

Good luck crafting your own message and a story to deliver it.

Video

On October 5, 2011, at the FORTUNE Most Powerful Women Summit, IBM's future CEO Ginni Rometty shared a personal story about the time she was offered a new role. She uses the story to share what she’d learnt about risk taking and personal growth. Watch the video to see how she crafts a simple yet powerful message for her audience (who do you think they are?).

Let us know how well you felt Ginny communicated her message? What was her intent? And who do you think her primary audience for this were?