7 communications rules and how I learned them

Each Friday I send an email to the broad communications team at Microsoft, titled, naturally, TGIF. :) Sometimes I share these externally; below are my favorite parts from the one I sent earlier today.

Inspired by a recent email where our CTO Kevin Scott applied Arthur Clarke’s famous laws to the world we live in, I’ve been pondering if there are a similar set of laws that apply to us as communicators here at Microsoft. Over the years, I’ve kept a loose list of lessons learned that I routinely apply. I am certain they will not have the staying power of Clarke, but here you go! These are not in order of importance, and where they were directly inspired by input from others, I’ve noted it here. For example, I often refer to the first one as the “Brad Smith directive.” I’m not sure what to call these. Laws? Lessons? Rules? Strongly worded suggestions? Hints? Open to ideas here…

1.      If you discover you have made a mistake, fix the mistake, then say what you’ve done. Fast. (Brad Smith)

Years back, we got a call from a reporter who was asking about a story he had related to non-profits in Russia, and how it was possible that our systems were being used in such a way to put those non-profits at risk. As we dug in, it became clear that this was the case. Brad drove a system change that ensured it would never happen again, and we worked with the reporter to get that into the story. It was still a bad story. But because we’d fixed the systemic issue, the follow on stories were much better. Fix the mistake! There are too many times to count where I”ve been focused on responding to the inbound that I haven’t taken the time to try and fix the problem.

2.      Decide what you are going to do before you decide what you are going to say. (Mich Mathews)

Many times we find ourselves in situations where we are brought in to decide what to say in a given situation – what statement to issue, etc. At this moment, the most value we can provide before applying gobs of words to the problem is to push for crystal clarity on what we are going to actually do. Fancy words hurt us here – they can obscure action. Mich Mathews (former Microsoft CMO) used to hold meetings Friday afternoon to review the comms week ahead, and I remembers sitting in a conference room and having her edit a beautifully written doc I’d presented and then pause and say, “it is not clear to me what we are going to actually do,” which in fact was true. Lesson learned!

3.      Numbers tell stories, find the story. (Amy Hood)

This is true at earnings, of course, but it is also true pretty much all the time. Finding the right number, then attaching it to the right story is like alchemy, turning lead to gold. Sometimes it relates to momentum, sometimes to customer sentiment, sometimes to market share relative to something else… but wallowing in numbers, listening to them sing, makes a big difference. Data and numbers tell stories. Shh. Listen. As a word person ?? it took me a while to embrace this one and learn to love spreadsheets. I missed a lot of great stories because of this bias.

4.      If you are going to get a question about something, answer the question in your prepared remarks/documents. (Amy Hood)

Again, true at earnings, but applicable all the time. Life is so much easier if you have actually answered the hard question in advance, and haven’t had to rely on page three of a Q&A and hope to catch it on the rebound. Plus, you don’t look defensive when you say, “it is in the release/blog/published story” in response to what otherwise might feel like a “gotcha” question. For years before learning about this rule, I defaulted to putting the tough questions into the Q&A and hoping they wouldn’t come up. They usually did. ?? So Amy’s way is a lot better.

5.      If you can’t tweet it, they won’t repeat it. (Steve Ballmer)

We were in his office, working on a speech. He had asked what the most important point was, and I’d told him my idea. He uttered the law. He was right. Life got a bit easier when Twitter first increased character counts and then someone invented tweetstorms, and then threaded tweets but the rule stands. ??

6.      Acting fast is more important than anything other than being right.

The need for speed is real, but the need to get the facts and be right is even more real. There are few things more painful professionally than rushing to get something out only to discover shortly after that what you got out was wrong, or partially wrong, or needed more context. So slow down and be right, while moving with speed. Twitter has not been my friend in how many times I have learned this; just recently I hit “post” on a tweet and seconds later discovered it was wrong. But it was too late, so clearly I’m still learning!

7.      Remember the power of silence and stillness.

Sometimes the hardest thing to suggest is doing nothing. We know how hard it is to stay silent (it is a known tactic of reporters, using the awkward silence as a way to get an interviewee to say more than they might want). But silence and stillness are tactics on their own, and we should use them regularly.

TGIF! Pam Edstrom’s first law was that there could only be three things, so I am in violation of this directive by more than a bit! But it is what it is, and it is Friday, so. ??

fxs