I’ve worked with and coached many founders, C-Suite, and senior executives on becoming spokespeople, it’s something that I really enjoy doing regardless of how much or how little experience they have.
What’s interesting is there is one tip that I share that always seems to come back to me as being the ‘gold nugget’ that these spokespeople have utilised most, I call it ‘the grid of nine’.
In this blog post, I wanted to share what the ‘grid of nine’ is but first, it’s important to understand the ‘rule of three’. This might be something that you’ve previously come across but it’s worth reiterating.
Basically, our brains operate by recognising patterns, so whether you’re speaking or listening, your brain is performing that action based on identifying recognised patterns in the language. The smallest number to form a pattern is, you guessed it, three.
So, what I recommend to spokespeople is to try to get no more than three points, messages, or perspectives across in a speech, interview, or presentation. The audience will retain the information far better if the rule of three is stuck to in this regard.
This rule played a significant role for me when I was a student. I used to have a method for recalling information ahead of exams based on threes. I used to handwrite (remember when that was a thing) the pieces of information I needed to remember three times on a piece of paper. I would then read and repeat each piece of information three times, three times a day. That seemed to work for me.
Fast forward to my professional career, I encourage spokespeople to follow a similar approach, especially if they want to be considered a ‘specialist’ source of information. In my view, if, as a spokesperson, you talk to more than three topics/subjects in the course of your spokesperson activities for a set period like a year, you crossover from specialist to generalist. People may disagree, but that’s my view.
Essentially, if you’re seen as a specialist then people will come back to you for your insight on those specialist topics if you’ve ‘got your name out there’ and have been consistent in the topics you discuss. That may be in the form of press interview requests, speaking engagements or just in general conversation.
Grid of Nine
So, this brings me on to the ‘grid of nine’. When I work with spokespeople to prepare them to speak to an audience, I would ask them what three messages they want to get across. What information do they want the audience to leave with and why?
The why is important to ensure that it flows back to the overarching topics/subjects they are focused on talking about but also helps to bring clarity to how the messages fit with the perception the business is trying to shift or get across.
From there, I ask them to go down a level on the message to add more detail as to why that message is important to that audience. Finally, I ask them to exemplify with a proof point or anecdote to bring the message to life for the audience.
That, in a nutshell, is the ‘grid of nine’; three messages each with a layer of detail and a proof point or anecdote. As an example, a very basic cybersecurity message might work as follows:
Message: ACMEs AI enabled EDR solution saves a threat analyst time by automating mundane tasks and allowing them to focus on more important activities.
Detail: Threat analysts are often focused on routine administrative tasks but with an increase in cyber threats and limited resources available for security teams, it’s essential that these analysts can focus on identifying threats to protect the business.
Proof point: According to ACMEs threat report, 75% of threat analysts say they don’t have enough time to focus on their core role of threat detection and this puts their business at risk.
The benefit of the ‘grid of nine’ is to make it easy for the spokesperson to focus on what they want to get across and how much information to provide as well as for the audience to retain the information.
As a spokesperson, it’s not easy preparing for a speaking engagement. There is so much that you could talk about and often you find yourself lost in the endless possibilities of what points to make. Using rules like the ‘grid of nine’ helps to channel that thought process into something bite size and memorable.
I hope this was insightful. I’ll be sharing more tips and techniques on the blog so please check it out. Also, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or if you need any communications, PR or content support.