Coaching

Devising key messages is important for any organization and most professionals, but it can also be hard. To formulate a system of key messages, an individual or organization needs to come clean about who they are and what is important to them. As long as this is about technical questions, it’s easy. But the key messages that really matter are those that have an emotional component, and agreeing on something that is emotional can be, well, emotional. It also quickly becomes a political issue, and that means everyone will consider himself an expert.

Finally, just nailing down key messages will give you a platform to stand on, but it will also define your range of action. That means it will curtail your freedom. It’s hard to want that, but you should try. After all, whatever freedom you give up this way never amounted to much. If you can’t find a key message energizing you about something, then it probably isn’t important.

Conversely, anything that matters will create some excitement, so it’s worth trying to find the words to go with the music. Ideally, key messages will be an item for a management retreat. When all involved are in the same place they can hammer out those messages swiftly. And if a camera team is on hand, they can try out wordings immediately to see if they roll off the tongue without a hitch or whether it needs a rewrite.
Once a message is agreed on, memorize it and memorize it so thoroughly you forget you ever knew it. When that happens, the message gets stored not in your brain, but in your spinal cord, and that means it will be available immediately, creating what’s known as a push-button response.