Concept
The one core message
The core message is the one sentence a reader or listener should remember if they forget everything else. The Heaths borrow the US Army's Commander's Intent: a single line at the top of every order that survives when the plan falls apart.
Finding the core is the first step of every message on the Communicate Better road, because the curse of knowledge means you cannot otherwise tell what you are trying to say. The test is simple: write the sentence in under a minute. If you cannot, you do not yet know your point, and no amount of writing will hide that from the reader. The core is not a summary of everything; it is a choice about what matters most, which means leaving things out. Journalists call the failure burying the lead. Once the core exists, the message, the presentation and the hard conversation are all built to serve it.
A real-life example
A team lead's weekly update runs to eleven paragraphs. Its core, once she writes it, is one line: the release is on time for the 14th, with one risk in payments she will resolve by Thursday. The director reads that line and nothing else.
How to use it
- 1Before writing or speaking, write the one sentence the other person should remember.
- 2If it takes more than a minute, stop and find the point first.
- 3Put the sentence at the top and build everything else to serve it.