Over the last few months, I posted essays expanding on my thesis about the importance of communicating important messages to others using three separate and different methods. This series focused on three broad categories of communication, in-person, written, and electronic, each with a few subcategories and some overlap. Ken Blanchard talks about the importance of spaced repetition in his book, Know, Can, Do. The book talks about how advertisers use spaced repetition to make people take action and buy their products. The Three Pitch Rule builds on this idea as a way for leaders to ensure they build relationships and achieve results. This month, I will wrap up and review the previous articles and use some real-life stories to show how to maximize your communications efforts using the Three Pitch Rule. Some of the details in each story are changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

In-person communication can be the most effective and the most challenging. It requires you to think ahead about the message you want to communicate without knowing how others will react. Rehearsing your message is one way to ensure you are effective. Another is planning a series of questions to ensure both you and the others understand what was really said and what others really commit to doing.

In-person communication helps build strong relationships that achieve results when done well. I think we all know the results of poor and ineffective in-person communications. While relationships are important for leaders, so are results. In-person communication helps ensure leaders build solid relationship that achieve results.

It is difficult to anticipate every reaction every person will have to your message, Therefore one of the challenges of verbal, in-person communication is knowing what the right thing to say is for any situation. Talking through the tough stuff becomes easier with more experience. Not talking simply builds walls, making the conversations harder in the future. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing is nothing.” Talking about difficult things is the same; it is better to open the conversation and completely botch it than to do nothing about the situation.

Writing is a critical leadership skill. While you do not have to be an Ernest Hemingway, or Jocko Willink, you do need to express yourself well in written documents. Advantages of writing include being able to refine, edit, and tweak your message better. Writing allows the author time to think about what elements are the most important about the idea. Written documentation provides a document trail for a variety of reasons. Often leaders only think of using document trails to punish others. Those same document trails can be used to justify a host of other positive and negative actions for employees, vendors, and customers. The two best ways to learn to write better are by reading, and actually writing.

Electronic communication is the modern means of sending messages to others using electrically connected devices. Examples include telephones, social media, email, and video conferences and calls. A telephone call is not the same as being in person with another, but many of the same rules apply. Likewise, an email or social media instant message is writing, but it is not the same as writing a policy document. Each has nuances users need to learn to use them effectively and professionally. Most of us have probably inadvertently sent the REPLY ALL flaming email. Breath before clicking send on any form of electronic communications.

In the Three Pitch thesis, one should use three different methods to communicate important messages to others. A recent example is welcoming a new member to your Board of Directors. Even if you are the Board President, you are not that person’s boss, but you still must lead them. If you are the CEO, that Board Member is your boss and you still must lead them! In this case, I had a Board Member who had been serving for about six months. I wanted to encourage this person to become more involved is one of our projects, so I called him to ask for a meeting. Of course, the call went to voicemail, requiring me to leave a voice message. Before placing the call, I understood I might have to leave a message. I planned what I would say if that happened. The message for the Board Member told them I wanted to meet and the topic. I asked for an email with some dates and times over the next two weeks that worked for him, the first pitch. I did not hear from him by the next day, so I followed up with an email and the same request, the second pitch. No reply was received the following day, so I sent a text message, the third pitch. The Board member responded to the text message. He was on vacation the week I was trying to connect. He would call when he returned.

In another example, I connected with a vendor about upgrading a service. I called and made an appointment to talk to my representative, the first pitch. We conducted a video call to discuss the issues, the second pitch. After the call, I emailed the representative summarizing what we discussed, and expected follow-up actions, the third pitch. I received a favorable proposal from the vendor.

In an employee example, I met with a person to discuss a project. I asked the person in a regular staff meeting to connect with me after to set up another meeting, pitch one. We made an appointment and met the following day, pitch two. A week later, I sent the employee an email asking for a status update on the project. This ensured she remembered to work on the project, and provided an opportunity to open a channel of communication to clear up any misunderstandings, pitch three.

I introduced the Three Pitch Rule by telling a story about Linda Lang, a DARE Instructor Trainer with Illinois State Police. In my DARE Officer Training, she told us to tell students what we were going to tell them in class, tell them in the instruction, and end by telling them what we told them. When people hear a message three times, they are more likely to remember and understand. The Three Pitch Rule builds on this classroom method by allowing leaders to connect with those they lead to ensure communication actually happened. Be like the classroom teacher when you are leading. Tell people what you need, arrange some sort of meeting discussion platform discussed in this series, and follow up by re-vowing what you discussed after the meeting. Following this simple model improves communication. The next time you have something important to communicate, develop a plan to pitch the message three times to make sure it is received, understood, and acted upon.

References

I really do not remember where I found the Teddy Roosevelt quote years ago. I typed it onto a word processing document, printed and framed it to always remember to be decisive even in the face of uncertainty.

(c) 2023 Christopher St. Cyr