off-stage right

Recently I witnessed a major CEO speaking at a relatively informal event.  This CEO had been making all the rounds trying to reposition a well-known brand.  While speaking with this small group, a compliment was paid to the CEO.  The knee-jerk response from the CEO was to blurt out the well practiced messaging that had been said over and over in the last month.

The problem was that the compliment that was paid was reflective of the actual brand not of the new planning or the marketing message.  And it ended up that that person who paid the compliment was insulted by the CEO’s response.  This resulted in a very uncomfortable situation.  I have been thinking about this a lot.  Certainly the CEO didn’t mean to insult the audience at hand?  So if it wasn’t deliberate was it simply that the CEO simply wasn’t really listening because the focus was on the message?

Now this got me thinking about messaging.  Messaging reached far beyond marketing at a nonprofit.  Our existence depends on clear consistent messaging – doesn’t it?  At nonprofits we spend a lot of time making sure everyone is on message.  There are a lot of folks who represent the organization, leadership, staff, board, and volunteers and it is vital that everyone sings from the same songbook as the saying goes.  A lot depends on our message to our communities.

But can all this messaging get in the way of listening? 

If our answers are too practiced, too canned, too automatic are we really paying attention to the people we are interacting with?  In an effort to get everyone on the same page have we lost the opportunity for dialogue? 

A central message is vital, but perhaps it is better to ask if the mission and core values are concise and clear enough that they “live” inside of each person and therefore you have time to focus on the conversation not on memorizing your message.

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