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In this episode of 5 Minutes With Andy, CEO Andy Freed explains why every organization needs a clear central message that people can remember and repeat—like the chorus of a great pop song.

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Andy discusses:

• Why talking points fall short.  
• How the message triangle helps leaders communicate clearly and consistently from any angle.
• What makes a strong central message—and how you know when you’ve nailed it.

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Like what you hear? Follow 5 Minutes With Andy for more leadership insights.

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Hi. Welcome to Five Minutes With Andy. My name is Andy Freed. I'm the CEO of Virtual, Incorporated. For the last 25 years, we've been helping organizations that are forming, growing, and changing as they make their mark on the world. So much of the work we do is around communications and messaging. And when we're doing that, I am such a big fan of an organization having a central message—really understanding what it is you're trying to say and what are the messages that support that.

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Now, visually, I love to set up that central message, not as talking points, not as a bumper sticker, but I love message triangles. I love the idea of having a central message in the middle, and then three supporting messages on the outside.

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When you do that, you can make sure you can enter the triangle from any spot. You can start with one of those outer messages and then work your way into the central message. You can start with the central message and work your way out to the other supporting ideas. The idea of this is that talking points are great, but often conversations aren't linear.

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You wind up having to approach things from different ways. So, looking at something like a triangle, which lets you look at your messages from many different angles. Well, that lets you think about different ways to approach messaging and still get to that central point. Now, as you're thinking about this, it's more than just taking the central message and putting three supporting messages around it and saying, I'm done with my messaging now. You want to think about things within that that will help you make sure that your message is right and you're getting the right things from it.

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First, you want to make sure that whatever you're coming up with is clear. It should be clear, and it should be concise. A central message, if it doesn't fit inside of that triangle, that's probably a pretty good sign that you haven't hit clear and concise. It should be something that's short. The reason you want to have something which is clear and concise is ultimately you want to make sure that it’s repeatable.

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Now, a great example of a central message is thinking about the chorus in a song. It's no secret that I love Bruce Springsteen and think you can learn so much from Bruce Springsteen about leadership.

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Now, Bruce once said that he knows he has a great pop song when he can hear 55,000 people sing the chorus back to him. That's the same thing you want with a central message. You want 55,000 people to be able to sing it back to you, because when they can, it turns out the voices of 55,000 people, it's louder than any one voice is on its own. That's what you're looking for. The ability to have your organization sing it back to you, to repeat what you're saying, or to have your audience sing it back to you, to repeat what you're saying, so that you can grow in impact.

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When you're doing that, that also means that that message is not just repeatable, but it also helps with resilience. Being able to have a central message means it's something people can turn to when they're not really sure of things, when they're worried about stuff, when they're not really sure what the true north is. That's what the central message provides, a chance to understand this is really where we're trying to go and what we're trying to do.

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So clear, concise, repeatable help you with resilience. All of those things become things that help you with a central message. And all of that is what helps you get your message across to your organization. And if you're doing it right, then it's not just you that's singing it, but it's a whole bunch of people who are singing along with you.

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And if you've gotten it right, then it's not just they're singing, but they're actually getting the words right. That's when you know, you've created a great pop song. And in your case, it's when you've created a great central message.

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Thanks for spending five minutes with me today. I hope you will again soon. Make sure you like or subscribe and join me again.

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