3. Structure. To be readily understood, a message must follow
a structure, and that structure must be readily apparent to the
audience. Even if you’re just writing a one-page e-mail or leaving
a 30-second voice message, a simple structure will help your message
get through. It can be as basic as this:
We have three problems. In order of increasing importance,
they are:
1. Our widgets are too expensive.
2. Our sales force is incompetent.
3. Our widget factory was just destroyed in a freak
meteorite impact.
Sometimes McKinsey-ites can take structuring their messages a
bit too far. One EM in the New York office was reputed to put her
shopping lists in Firm format. Another left affectionate messages on
his wife’s answering machine—following the McKinsey structure.
Although you needn’t follow the extreme examples of these
overzealous McKinsey-ites, in your business communications you
would do well to remember the three keys to effective messaging.