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Communication That Counts.

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PART 2 - the MESSAGE

In our last installment, we saw some humorous examples of communication gone wrong and discussed the responsibility we in the church have to connect meaningfully with our members, visitors and communities through the use of effective communication.  I also introduced us all to the “3M-Process”, the method my marketing firm uses to help clients connect with and compel their audiences.  Today, we begin our journey into the anatomy of effective communication with an up-close look at the first of our 3M’s, the Message.

We live in what communicators have come to term an “over-communicated society”.  Information bombards us at every turn, in every form.  Messages from personal, professional and commercial sources seek an audience with our senses and compete for an increasingly elusive pause for consideration.  Not surprisingly, in this dense forest of information, it’s increasingly more difficult to distinguish one Message from another.  The result is a subconscious defensiveness that actually leaves us less impressionable and less likely to notice or retain the Messages that reach our eyes and ears.

It’s never been more important to have a well crafted Message when endeavoring to communicate with our audience.  Contrary to what may seem logical, making your Message louder, brighter and increasingly over the top isn’t necessarily the most effective tact.  (And how I wish someone would share this with the car salesman!).  Let’s look now at a few of the ways we can sharpen the point on our Message and help it stick in the minds of our targets.

We define the “Message” as the substance of what you need to communicate.  A sharp Message is comprised of two parts:  fact and feeling.  Let’s start with a look at the later. 

Emotional Content:
If something is worth communicating, there’s probably a reason it’s important; but all too often, we divorce information from the inspiration that compelled us to communicate it originally.  This is often the result of someone dutifully communicating what they have been told is important, rather than that which is important to them.  Effective Messages almost always present us with both logical and emotional information.  They don’t just inform us, they make us feel a certain way.  If the person doing the communicating isn’t particularly interested (or able) to communicate the emotion of a Message, it isn’t likely that the Message will stick.  This is why we remember so clearly the major details of moving, personal testimonies.  The emotional component helps the information stick. 

We can use this truth to our advantage when communicating.  For example, a church wishing to promote an upcoming men’s retreat would be well served by allowing time for a first-hand testimony from someone impacted while on a previous retreat.  Conversely, having the Music Minister rattle off a list of “important announcements”, among which is the men’s retreat, will not likely communicate anything but that the retreat is no more or less important than the bake sale next Wednesday, or any of the other announcements.  Presenting a Message that is equal parts information and inspiration will go a long way toward making it stick.  Even if the bake sale isn’t particularly inspiring, the reason you’re holding it likely does contain a nugget of inspiration, so be sure to include that important part of the Message!

Factual Content:
An equally critical component of a sharp Message is the factual presentation.  We’re probably all familiar with the old reporters’ motto of “Who? What? When? Where? & Why?”.  These time-tested queries will garner the facts around which we will form our Message, and clear facts are very important.  After all, telling people to call-in their reservations to the Valentines’ Day banquet and not providing the phone number will only cause confusion.  Or encouraging visitors to drop their kids off in the children’s wing will not be very helpful if they do not know where the children’s wing is.  Omitting any of the relevant facts is a sure fire way to render our communication efforts moot.  In fact, such omissions actually serve to promote confusion & add to a lack of understanding! 

Now, getting all the relevant facts into our communications seems like a no-brain-er, but it’s more often the question of which facts are relevant that gets the train off its tracks. What makes a fact relevant?  If a fact will help the least-knowledgeable member of our audience understand our Message better, it is relevant.  We should never make the mistake of assuming that everyone in our audience knows all of the facts.  Even if some facts deserve more discussion than others, filling in all the important blanks will help keep everybody on the same page. 

On the other side of this coin, not all the facts will be relevant.  For example, when advertising an upcoming garage sale to benefit an injured member of the church, it’s probably not important to tell everybody that Margaret injured herself by riding her bicycle into the back of Pastor’s car.  Though, you may want to tell Pastor.  Filling our Message with un-inspiring facts which don’t directly answer one of the above questions will only render our Message too voluminous to be meaningfully remembered.  So the key here is to strike a balance by determining which un-inspiring facts could truly aide the least-knowledgeable member of your audience and then excluding every other UN-inspiring fact.  As a rule, our Message should be as brief as these truly relevant facts will allow.  It may seem logical to describe your event at length, but science and psychology have taught us that a brief, sharp Message, repeated frequently, stands a much greater chance of being remembered.

Repetition:
Repetition of the facts is another very important principle.  Psychologists tell us that we must hear something seven times before it becomes anything more than a passing bit of trivia.  So repetition of the facts is another HUGE component of effective communication.  Have you ever wondered why you see the same dumb television commercials over and over again?  You must have seen them twenty or thirty times; and assuming that they’re not so annoying that you have blocked them out, you could probably describe them to a tee.  Now, wouldn't it be nice if our audiences could repeat our announcements with the same amount of clarity?  This makes repetition of the facts an essential component of effective communication.  A good rule to follow is that important events should be preceded by no less than 4 weeks of announcement.  (OK, I’m only going to repeat that:  repetition of the facts is important – four times here. So you’re going to need to read this paragraph again for good measure!)

Proper Use of Language:
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also extol the virtues of using good grammar and proper English.  This is, surprisingly, one of the great areas of weakness in many of our Messages.  Failing to properly utilize these two things will almost certainly lead to confusion at some point.  It will detract from the substance of our Message and can even render it wholly ineffective with well-educated members of our audience.  It is always advisable to utilize tools such as “spell-check” and “grammar-check”, as well as the skills of an educated, proof-reader.  If nothing else, just having another person review our work will often reveal an overlooked error while providing us with a fresh perspective.

Now that we’ve honed the substance of our communication into a finely-pointed arrow, we will begin next time by looking at how to focus in and put the “target” on our Market (audience), our second M.