poseyblog’s whole purpose is to help innovators become great communicators. The most important part of being a great communicator is your message. Your idea, your innovation, your cause – you convey these through your message. Delivery is vital, but if you’re delivering boring crap, who cares??
So, what makes a good message? First: You have a truly provocative, useful idea that provokes attention, thought, discussion and action. If what you have to say isn’t original, if it isn’t both useful and exciting to your audience, then why are you up there saying it?
Second: You keep it simple. You choose one theme. You use the simplest possible language to convey it. Years ago I was sitting in a meeting at Sun Microsystems and the CMO says, “If I can just get 45 minutes of someone’s undivided attention I can explain our whole story.” I knew we were doomed.
Less is more my great communicators! Always. Really.
Give your audience one great idea to contemplate. One powerful message to chew on. Do not ask anyone to digest a dense, multi-layered presentation of your complete vision and all the details showing how you brilliantly execute on it. Nope. A simple vision, problem and solution. That’s all.
Details are for small group or one:one communication with people who have already qualified themselves as interested in your whole story. When that’s your audience, fire away! In every other situation, though, simplicity is power.
Communication is the essential last mile in finding and motivating the right teams, acquiring strong allies, powerfully bonding with customers, and capturing mindshare with compelling stories. Nothing will serve you and your vision better than developing exceptional communication skills.
