We have largely stayed clear of looking at the interviews produced by our politicians during the...
Many years ago during an election campaign, I was invited to a briefing by a political party to discuss the coverage of a rally up north somewhere. All the PR people were there as well as various strategists; all very excited about the forthcoming event and claiming this would be the clincher to them winning the election. Nothing could go wrong they said.
There was a huge impressive set, hundreds of the party faithful cheering their leader to victory. However, when one of my colleagues asked what the key message was and what was the top line? – he was given a rather odd response; “Oh it doesn’t matter” was the rather glib reply. “Its only a rally. The leader will just do his usual rather over-energised call to arms and everything will be fine”. How wrong they were. They suffered a massive defeat and there were long faces all round. So yes, it’s all about the message. Get this right and you’re laughing.
The kind of key message you want people to go away with will depend largely upon your purpose. Do you want people to be persuaded of your point? Or do you want them to be motivated into action? Perhaps you are simply teaching them some new facts or skills?
Your key message will need to fit in with your purpose. So, to help write your key message you need to be sure of what it is you are trying to achieve. In any event your objective should be to change the behaviour of your audience.
You either want them to believe something they did not beforehand or you want them to go away and act on your message. Maybe you want them to have adopted new skills.
Every presentation that succeeds, involves a change in the behaviour of the audience. If you don’t write down your purpose in these terms you will not be able to work out your key message.
An example of a purpose statement and a key message is shown below. This might be for a talk based on this blog entry.
Purpose: To motivate the audience to deliver presentations with impact
Key message: Making presentations is easy if you plan and prepare well in advance, meaning everyone can be a success.
So come on and join my “Monster Raving Presentation Party” today!
Sharon
