The messaging of an idea...

It seems that lately I've been involved with optimizing how to present, developing a successful pitch, how to get a complicated message across to an audience, how to catch people's attention, and ultimately get someone to listen to an idea. Slides and discussions, discussions and slides — more slides, and definitely more discussion...

Maybe by the end of all this, it'll turn out to be as much a catharsis for me as any insight into the art and science of optimizing a message, but let's see where this takes us before we make a decision on that. I might as well start here —

About a week ago I happened to mention to an associate that I was working with a small team to build out a pitch for an idea that we wanted to put in front of some potential investors — as part of this mention I happened to add we were on draft 24 of the presentation when we had to make the "pitch". To that there was a look of surprise (along with a smidge of shock) regarding the number of iterations we had worked through, and this became the tipping point into a rather long conversation about optimizing a message — particularly if it was something as nebulous as an idea. Below are some of the considerations that ebbed and flowed throughout our conversation: 

• Why is a simplified message important? 
• What constitutes a complicated message? 
• What is the best vehicle for presenting a message? 
• Do you know your audience? 
• How do you boil down the message without losing meaning?
• Et cetera, et cetera.

And then we simply ran out of time and had to stop our conversation — something to be picked up at a later date no doubt. There was also no doubt this is a meaty topic — and frankly a very important one.

As this catharsis builds momentum it's very clear that this is bigger than one blog post, and although I have some insights in this area, there are others who have greater skill with messaging an idea — and more importantly, getting buy-in and moving it forward. My hope here is to engage those who are really good at it, expand the discussion, and make us a little better tomorrow than we are today. 

Since I was the one who started this, I'll put a stake in the ground and say I approach messaging any idea (or proposed plan) using these guiding principles when figuratively putting pen to paper —

No one cares about your idea. It is your job to make them care.

Complicated gets confusing and people lose interest when it's confusing.

It is important you know your audience and what's important to them.

Less is more

Don't pitch a solution looking for a problem

For right or wrong, this frames up my thinking process and the approach I use when messaging any idea — and I suppose, encourage me to write more in short order. To be continued...

And hopefully, just maybe, I'll get a little help from my friends,

iamgpe

Where have all the tacticians gone?

My experience is when you get into discussions associated with Goals, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics, Stratagems, Tacticians and the like, it quickly turns into a fuzzy semantical stew that leaves everyone full but always slightly unsatisfied.

Goal [ɡōl] NOUN— the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result

Objective [əbˈjektiv] NOUN— a thing aimed at or sought; a goal

Strategy [ˈstradəjē] NOUN— a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim

Tactic [ˈtaktik] NOUN— an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end

Stratagem [ˈstradəjəm] NOUN— a plan or scheme, especially one used to outwit an opponent or achieve an end

Tactician [takˈtiSHən] NOUN— one versed in tactics

and the like [and, (ə)n] [T͟Hē, T͟Hə] [līk]— and similar things; et cetera

See what I mean?

After all these years whenever I find myself getting into the stew I always ground myself with a simple story that was told to me many years ago... 

A very long time ago there was an island city named Andorra that was the envy of all the land — the only way to reach the city was over four bridges that linked the city with the mainland. One day a particularly envious King in a neighbouring kingdom called his council together and said this — 

• My goal is to conquer the city of Andorra and make it part of my kingdom before the end of the year.

• The strategy to do this will be to starve the inhabitants into surrender.

• The tactic we will use to accomplish this is destroy the bridges so the city cannot get any food.

And with that, the King went about the task of achieving his goal.

I've always liked this story because it is a reminder of how we can complicate things with nuisance and semantics, and it is a strong example of what a goal, a strategy and tactic truly represent — something easily translated into various situations.

I also like this story because you may have been saying to yourself that just destroying the bridges won't work because the people of Andorra can always fish or have food brought in by boat (which is a very good point, as well as a very important reminder) — there is one goal, maybe a handful of strategies, and a large number of tactics needed to ensure the goal is achieved. 

Unless you are tactically effective, you will never achieve your strategies and most definitely not your goal.

If this is true, and I believe it is, why does everyone want to be a strategist? Why do many people, in some form or another, say they are good at strategy, a senior marketing strategist, or a strategist to something (or someone) and believe they are very important? Is it because deep down we all want to be king? Although, if we are all king, how does anything actually get done — I mean, who is actually going to destroy the bridges?

Where have all the tacticians gone? Maybe they are just strategists in disguise.

iamgpe

Moments — LOVE, FREEDOM, INNER STRENGTH

I could not help but notice the chalkboard — it had been erased clean (although the deeply etched messages of the past still echoed through if you looked hard enough), and in the bottom right corner were three words for all to see. 

LOVE

FREEDOM

INNER STRENGTH

Who wrote these three words was impossible to tell. It may have been the one who erased the board clean or someone who came across a clean slate and had something to say? I don't think it really matters. I could not help but think they were three very good words — all open for interpretation, but in the end all positive and noble pursuits.

As is my way, I looked at this symbolically and saw the words as the compass for how we fill in the rest of the space that is our chalkboard — be it in with our actions, the way we live our life, or what we plan to do.

Or I suppose they could be just three words someone thought had meaning — in that case mine would be LIGHT, LOVE, UNDERSTANDING.

As I look at my three words though, it does seem they actually are the compass and inspiration for most of what I am.

iamgpe