Every day, we are bombarded by messages, signals, data, intel, and a whole host of other information, making it hard to tell direction from distraction. All of this makes leaders’ messaging that much more important. Deviating from the script, or being “off message,” is often viewed as a failure.
But the reality is that rigid messaging often fails to resonate with the target audience. Messages crafted in a corporate boardroom or government headquarters rarely account for real-world context, audience needs, or emotional impact. And in today’s digital-first world, where AI-driven filters and algorithms shape what people see and hear, authenticity and adaptability matter more than ever.
The Flow of Information and Emotion
Messages don’t just transfer information—they spread like a virus, shaped by the networks they pass through. In most organizations, messaging cascades top-down through mission statements, corporate emails, and leadership talking points.
But humans don’t passively absorb every message they hear. Science has shown us that people filter information based on:
- Selective Exposure: Seeking information that aligns with their beliefs.
- Selective Retention: Remembering messages that emotionally resonate.
- Selective Perception: Interpreting messages through personal biases.
This filtering process is why scripted talking points often fail. People have no ownership over words they don’t believe in, and when messages lack emotional connection, they don’t stick.
Aligning Your Narrative to Break the Cycle
To cut through the noise, leaders must move beyond top-down directives and foster an aligning narrative—a story that empowers employees, strengthens trust, and creates emotional resonance at every level.
This narrative is the golden thread that connects all the components of Team of Teams®:
Trust: Employees must believe in leadership and feel trusted to communicate in their own words. Trust replaces rigid control, allowing organizations to scale communication effectively.- Shared Consciousness: Teams operate better when they have a common operating picture. Leaders must create transparency, ensuring employees have the information and processes needed to allow them to communicate effectively at their level.
- Common Purpose: Beyond just knowing what to do, employees need to feel why their work directly contributes to the broader mission. When messaging connects to purpose, engagement increases, and alignment strengthens.
- Empowered Execution: Employees closest to the issue often have the best situational awareness to communicate effectively. Rather than rigid scripts, organizations should equip teams with simple rules for tailoring messages and communicating their impact at their level.
These are tall orders, but the result is an aligning narrative that drives common purpose, improves collaboration, and makes communication more effective at every level of an organization.
The Power of Emotional Appeal
People have long understood the power of emotions in communication—great authors, poets, and musicians have mastered this art. In business, however, many organizations overlook emotional appeal in their messaging. Brands that market to consumers typically do it better, but not everyone operates in that space. Oftentimes, your employees are the “customers” receiving the message, and how they receive it matters.
“Know, Feel, Do”
Public relations and marketing professionals often use the “Know, Feel, Do” framework for message development:
- Know: What the audience should understand
- Feel: How the message should make them feel
- Do: What action they should take
However, many organizations skip the “feel” component, focusing instead on only what they want people to know or do. A message without “feel” is like eating a sandwich without anything inside; it’s just two pieces of dry toast, difficult to swallow with no taste.
Messages developed in a vacuum and delivered out of context will almost always fail. Leaders can improve message potency by prioritizing the “feel” component — the emotional connection that drives real engagement.
Research shows that emotional messages spread farther and linger longer than facts alone (this doesn’t mean not to include facts). Yet, many executives struggle to make this emotional connection. As a result, their aligning narrative fails to convey the broader meaning and importance of their organizational mission.
Empowered Execution and the Role of Leaders
The people closest to the issue understand the emotional landscape better than anyone. Yet, traditional organizations silence these voices, forcing them to parrot corporate messaging without context or adaptation. This leads to lost meaning and disengaged audiences.
Leaders at every level must be empowered and accountable for the organization’s aligning narrative.
- Messages should cascade down, but leaders should have the flexibility to tailor them for internal and external audiences at their level.
- If messages are too rigid, their potency—and often their meaning—is lost.
Everybody Is a Spokesperson
In the U.S. Coast Guard, every service member is a spokesperson for the organization. They are authorized to discuss operations and information within their span of control, with clear parameters restricting sensitive topics. This approach extends the public affairs capacity from 80 communicators to over 50,000 active-duty, reserve, and civilian employees.
Any organization can implement similar systems that empower employees to tell their story. In One Mission, author Chris Fussell describes how Joint Special Operations Command’s aligning narrative served as a unifying force, helping diverse teams operate under a single mission.
- This simple, powerful equation resonated because:
- It used plain language (no technical jargon or corporate-speak).
- Each word had a distinct meaning and emotional weight.
- It provided a clear, memorable framework for leaders at all levels.
The Rule of Three and the Power of Watchwords
JSOC’s equation also leverages the Rule of Three, a powerful communication tool. The brain naturally organizes information in threes, making it easier to remember. This cognitive process—schema formation—is why:
- We remember area codes effortlessly.
- We spot patterns in clocks.
- We recall phrases like “Stop, Drop, and Roll.”
At McChrystal Group, we have expanded on aligning narratives and the Rule of Three by incorporating watchwords—a long-standing military mechanism.
Creating a Meaningful Aligning Narrative
Distilling an organization’s mission into one powerful sentence is difficult. Creating a narrative that resonates at every level is even harder.
We use watchwords as a foundation—three words or short phrases that capture how we want our audience to feel after interacting with us. Only after we define “feel” do we consider “know” and “do.”
While working with a company undergoing a restructuring, leaders preparing for an all-hands event identified three emotions they wanted employees to feel afterward:
- Confidence: The leadership team wanted their employees to feel confident in the viability of the company.
- Clarity: They wanted to showcase transparency in the restructuring decisions and give them a sense of clarity.
- Commitment: Additionally, the leaders didn’t want people to give up, so they wanted to stress a renewed sense of commitment among the team.
After the event, these three words dominated employee feedback. The interesting thing about watchwords is that they don’t have to be overtly communicated. During the all-hands, the leaders never overtly said, “Confidence, clarity, and commitment are our watchwords.”
The leaders naturally integrated them into their existing talk track and communicated with those three feelings in mind. It wasn’t by accident. They were exposed to the watchwords and emotions they should convey early and were encouraged to use authentic storytelling where it fit naturally.
By subtly reinforcing the watchwords, the leaders activated mental mechanisms that make messages more memorable and meaningful to the audience. The watchwords were further reinforced by the emotional and cognitive resonance that occurs when messages feel authentic and are naturally integrated.
How Do Your Audiences Feel?
Information fades. Ideas grow stale. Emotions linger. They bind people to a message and move them to act.
The best leaders understand this. They don’t just communicate what needs to be done; they craft a narrative that makes people feel connected to the mission. They empower teams with watchwords and intent instead of rigid talking points. They recognize that an aligning narrative is not about control but trust, shared consciousness, common purpose, and empowering execution.
So, next time you communicate, ask yourself: How do you want your audience to feel? Are they just another set of instructions to forget? Or are you shaping an experience that will stick, spread, and inspire action?
Because, in the end, what people feel will determine what they remember and, ultimately, what they will do next.
