Can you tell me about your product or company in nine words or less? No? Then odds are, your audience can't either.  YOU need to be clear before you can communicate to anyone else.

Get all the key people in the room and welcome the debate!  If you build the message map as a team, you will own it as a team and you will USE it as a team.  The more consistently you can share your message, the more likely it will be retained.

If you're on a journey, you need a map.  And if you're climbing to the top, take a guide.

Hope it's a Clear Day!
Melissa

What is it about a song that takes you back to another time and place? Melodies send us messages that mean something different to each of us. At times I miss the teenager summers that contained a road ahead paved with possibilities, but there was always a part of me that understood the ephemeral nature of those moments. Every moment is fleeting.  I savored them at the time. And words, movies, friends, songs, they call all transport me back.  Funny, the happy memories are the ones that seem to be the first to arrive when I remember.

Communication can be so powerful, so lasting.  When I talk to people about what they want to communicate, I try to help them understand that what they communicate will last.  I can't remember what my friends were talking about how they said it or the name of a boy I danced with, but I can remember what it felt like to be there.  

Maya Angelou said it best, "People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel."

So if you are transparent, you are clear, you are intentional, you will leave those with whom you communicate feeling trusted; and that will make all the difference.