Don't drown your expert before the interview starts

Preparation is key to nearly every good media engagement, whether it’s a one-on-one interview or an availability with a large group of media. After all, the prep helps set the stage for success in terms of answering questions accurately and getting the key points across during the entire interaction.

But is there such a thing as too much preparation? I’d say there is. Why? Let me explain.

Recently I had a chance to review a copy of a media prep package that was 16 pages long – yes, sixteen pages. The media event was an availability with interested reporters and probably wasn’t going to last longer than an hour. The prospective spokesperson was a unit level guy, not someone who should be the leading voice on big issues for the organization.

By the way, those “big issues” were a lot of the excess in the sixteen pages of prep material. Sure, the packet contained a scene setter and some background information on the media in this particular market. But that insight can be done in a page or two; by discussion is even better. The document included a whole host of potential questions and answers too.

As a practitioner with many media events under my belt, the act of preparing members of my staff ahead of time has been drilled into my head since the earliest days. That act often comes with many hours of gathering facts, timelines and key messages for the prospective spokesperson in an effort to make them “well-prepared”. That doesn’t account for the time sitting together in prep sessions, running through a slew of potential questions to help ease the stress level a bit and ensure the questions are answered accurately and with the right level of alignment with the organization's strategy.

Think about it: can any of us expect a tactical level person to read and understand, let alone recall, sixteen pages of prep material? I’d say the answer is no. After the first few pages I’d suggest the effort to cover all the bases becomes noise for the person who is trying to prepare and remember what we’d suggest they say. And that’s a recipe for disaster. In trying to remember everything, they might recall almost nothing, and their performance will surely suffer as a result. Sure it makes the PR people feel good about a job well done by throwing everything in there but what about the person who will actually answer the questions?

In this case the subject matter expert is in charge of a group of about 150 people on a U.S. Navy ship. He calls all of the shots for his team and manages all of the issues that come with that level of responsibility. That’s not including the attention he must dedicate to the ship’s mission in conducting stealthy operations in some of the most unstable parts of the world.

To put it bluntly: this guy’s plate is already full before he even thinks about answering questions from a group of media. So why should we hand this guy sixteen pages of stuff for an event that might last an hour? All of that fluff about high level issues that could have all sorts of political, military or diplomatic implications (especially if he gets it wrong) could potentially drown the spokesperson in TMI (too much information). Yes, anyone speaking to media should be prepared but well-prepared is the key.

What he deserves is a brief overview of the objectives of the interview, along with a handful (key word) of overarching themes that he or she can use to reiterate as a part of the discussion of their work. That’s it. Even if they say they want more, more, more my responsibility is to tell them what I want them to talk about and how much prep material is enough to give the media a solid story.