How do you structure communication
to ensure the greatest number within the population get the message?
The effective message will have three components. In order, those components will:
1 Tell
the target audience what you’re going to tell them.
2 Tell
the target audience.
3 Tell
the target audience what you’ve told them.
Sound repetitive?
If the message is important, that may be just what it takes.
Just for grins, try this:
Using a sheet of paper placed “landscape” in front of you,
draw an east-west line across the middle edge to edge.
Make a row of letters, A through Z, using the tiles from a
Scrabble® Game. No need
to use either of the blanks.
You’ll only need twenty-six of the tiles. Place the letters below the horizontal line in alphabetical
order.
Assume that the row of letters represents the universe of
people with whom you need to communicate an important message.
Compose a memo including those three sections of text.
Read section one [telling the audience what you’re going to
tell them]. As you do this, move
all of the vowels north of the line.
This is a smidge under 20% of the population.
These letters represent the individuals in the organization
that are involved and engaged in just about everything. They are the ones who will figure out
the point of your missive right off the bat. They are essential to both communication and to getting the job
done. Imagine having to
communicate any message wtht ny vwls
whtsvr. Move the Y north also,
because s/he’s pretty much in that category. [Note: if you understood “wtht ny vwls whtsvr” in less than a few seconds, you’re probably a
vowel yourself.]
Next, read section two [telling the target audience]. As you do this, move any Scrabble tile
with a point value less than five north of the line.
The letters represent the people in the organization that
have a lot to do, that may be distracted by the innumerable tasks at hand or
issues du jour from some other aspect
of their life. They want to get
the message and will get the message, but perform better when the message
doesn’t sneak up on them. Once they’ve
received the message, they can go forward with the mission, integral to
ensuring its success.
That leaves us with 5 letter tiles: J, K, Q, X and
Z. Again, just fewer than 20% of
the population. Before reading
section three [telling the audience what you’ve just told them], consider where
our language would be without these letters in our alphabet.
How would we articulate “jazz,” or
“kiss,” or “Quixotic,” or “exotic,” or “zest.” Or "sex," for that matter! Some of the most engaging, thought-provoking, sensual and
meaningful words we speak employ some of the least used letters.
These five letter tiles represent not the ne’er-do-well,
who-gives-a-damn crowd. Rather,
they represent a creative element whose minds may be off in many directions
simultaneously. They are not
multi-taskers; rather, while doing the task, they likely have dendrites engaged
in lots of different endeavors.
These represent the if-you-want-to-get-something-done-ask-a-busy-person
subgroup. The first two sections
of the memo were simply an effort to get their attention funneled in your
direction for long enough to deliver the message.
The third section, to them, is the message.
In short then:
The first part of the memo or talk alerts all that something
important is coming. (Note to
leaders: Make sure that the something coming is important.)
The second part succinctly offers a narrative message, list
of steps, procedural outline or management report important to the mission of
the organization.
The third part represents the leader’s best effort to ensure
everyone gets the message.
A small disclaimer: Should all communication
include this repetitive format?
Probably not. But
understand that if the leader doesn’t make every effort to ensure that his or
her most creative personnel absorb the critical message, the result of the
overall mission will fall short of its potential.
Note:
Q: Scrabble
tiles include two blanks with no point value. What should I do about them?
A: What benefit
are they offering the organization?
© 2012
Church of the Open Road Press
This "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em," etc. is really an old saw that leaders have been employing forever. But the "why" is the part many of us overlook.
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