U.S. President FDR on how to SIMPLIFY a MESSAGE

In 1942, U.S. president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt converted one of his own government department memos- a black out order:

from:

“Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal building occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination.”

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“I DON’T Understand your key message”

My One-on-One and group work with clients involved participants delivering a mock, 45-90 second opening of a presentation or meeting. Often when a person finishes delivering this mock presentation, it is unclear to me, what their key message(s) is. That is, what they want me to retain and/or act upon.
I share this lack of clarity with the person, and suggest what I believe to be the key message – usually in the form of a few bullet points or a couple of sentences – and ask them if those points or sentences are the key messages they wanted to get across.
They regularly retort,

‘Yes, that’s it’ – to which I’ll reply – ‘Then why didn’t you say that?’

The reason, usually, for their unclear speaking, is from not taking enough time to think deeply enough of what the key messages were, and not taking time to choose, package and express that thinking in simple, concise language, that omits needless words.
Simplicity sells. Complexity confuses. The tighter your speaking the better. If a sentence doesn’t advance your case, drop it.
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Are you a ‘PRE-PACKAGED’ leader?

Recently I read a terrific article about the newly appointed CEO of The Ford Motor Company, Jim Hackett. The article was written by Jerry Useem, in a 7/3/19 Australian Financial Review, Review Magazine edition, entitled: Why Ford hired a furniture maker as CEO. 

This article is well-worth reading. A comment in it that made be pause and think was this. “If you look at business history, the winners are almost always those that get their user experience right”.

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