It was yesterday in Washington that reinforced for me the principle, “You cannot be your own doctor.”
In communications, self-diagnosis and self medication is easy to fall into. Most of yesterday was spent with a small team of board members meeting with the CEO of a national not-for-profit organization. Indeed, it’s an organization about to take a giant step in growth, a step that will entail major fund raising activities.
As we board members pressed for a crisp definition of the organization and clear statements of the benefits it generates, the CEO and staff resisted. “We have done that! It’s all here. We have everything we need to kick off the fund raising.”
Messages were not clear, the differentiation was not expressed, and other messages lacked precision. How could that be? After all, the paid staff is highly competent.
The answer lies in the “real-world” conditions we all face. Day-to-day hard work pulls us many ways. Just getting things done is the immediate goal. The messaging roles flawlessly in the minds internal people, who move with agility from conversation to conversation, but the messaging doesn’t stand on its own.
I know. A similar situation happend to me. Two weeks ago that my partner was at a workshop, where it was pointed out our firm did not have a positioning statement — an expression of how we want the business to be perceived. I could not believe it. After all, much of what we do is preparing positioning statements for clients. I pulled out the Messaging Platform that I’d personally drafted. Sure enough, the positioning statement isn’t there.
In sum, we truly cannot be our own doctors. We need critics who can tell us what’s missing in our communications and editors to make sure our messages are clear and understood.
John:
Couldn’t agree more. Messaging is everything, yet PR practitioners often fail at this most basic foundation. Our agency’s key message: “The Bay Area’s consumer PR experts” - probably not the best. . .I dare say. Good luck! Cheers, David