A Debate Can Teach Us Something....

During last night’s Presidential Debate I realized that I was not watching the debate as a voter but as an Emergency Manager and Crisis Communicator.  (In all actuality debates rarely help me decide).  I realized that a debate, albeit good or bad, can teach us a lot about how to communicate during high stress events.  

Here are a few things to take away.

• If you cannot make a point in two minutes or less you are already behind.

The structure of the presidential debates limits answers to two minutes, and the candidates have to set-up and sell their respective messages in that 2 minutes of their 90 minute debate.  When you think about the rest of us, 2-3 minutes is the average length of time of an average segment on the local news.  When designing your communication that goes out through local media make sure you can make your point in less than 2-3 minutes that way it fits into a nice neat segment.

• If you find yourself going back to re-explain a point or clarify you didn’t make a point.

This actually applies to when you review your performance.  If possible it is always good to constructively review (not obsess over) your actions / performance.  If you notice that you had to re-explain yourself you message was not concise and to the point.

• The sound bite is king.

No matter how great you did in your debate or interview if there was one juicy sound bite it has the potential to resonate and dominate your message regardless of whether or not it was message.   To mitigate the risk of a negative sound bite formulate your message as much as possible and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.   Now some would argue that you couldn’t rehearse enough but sometimes coming off too scripted can hurt too.

So if you are like me and are a little sick of all the politics and still feel compelled to watch the debates next watch through the lens of an emergency manager or crisis communicator.   If you are looking for a good analysis of last night’s debate through the eyes of a media trainer let me recommend Brad Phillips Blog – Mr Media Training .

If you other suggestions or tips feel free to leave them in the comments.