Poet Robert Burns tells us that “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Well, the same holds true for spokespeople and their messages. One of the goals of spokesperson training is to help people with message discipline. Even after careful thought and planning, spokespeople and presenters often stray from their message, tripped up a by a hostile question or something else unexpected.
Here are a few tips to ensure that you stay on track, using a recent Washington Post interview with Shyam Kannan, METRO’s head of planning, as an example of message discipline at its finest.
Keep the Message Simple.
If your message is too complicated and hard to remember, it’s going to be tough to stick with it. In this piece, Kannan’s message is simple. Metro needs to focus on improving and strengthening its current capacity and fixing issues now. Then it will work on longer term expansion. No matter what question the reporter asked, Kannan always came back to that theme.
Prepare for the Engagement.
Don’t think you can go into a media interview or presentation and just “wing it.” Train for it. That means not just honing the message but thinking about the kinds of questions—positive and negative—you could get. It means thinking about how your message might be heard or understood by others. Where will folks agree? Where will they disagree? Think of responses to the negatives. You can’t plan for everything but you should at least be prepared for the most obvious snags ahead.
Repeat the Message at Every Opportunity.
Kannan reminded the reporter several times throughout the interview that Metro’s focus on fixing a taxed and stressed system is the key to a stronger, more robust transit system. For example, when asked about extending the system to Frederick, Kannan said this, “Metro is exploring potential extensions of the system in its long-range plan, but our immediate focus is, and has to be, adding capacity to the core.” Or this, “Metro has to be responsible, and for that reason, Momentum’s first set of initiatives—called Metro 2025—are designed to solve problems that are here and now.”
Avoid Jargon.
Kannan uses simple, easy to understand language. For the most part, he avoided planner speak and the use of acronyms which helped make his points clearer.
Don’t Meet a Hostile Question with Hostility.
Right off the bat, the reporter was baiting Kannan, saying Metro’s Momentum 2025 plan, which Kannan spearheaded, is nothing more than a Band-Aid and doesn’t address the real needs of Metro riders, because it doesn’t include a third track to prevent delays. Kannan kept his cool, ignored the snarky comments, and then explained why adding a third track was not viable (land use issues, construction costs, etc). Then he added how they are working to add more flexibility to the system through other means.
Kannan evidenced the bottom line for working with reporters: he was prepared. A little foresight, as in all communications, can go a long way toward forging understanding and building relationships with reporters, readers and, ultimately, your customer, client, or contributor base.
