10.4. Create a Focused Message or Story

In Chapter 9, I talked about the focused message and the story that Tom Downs created when he took Amtrak's helm. Many other CEOs have created focused messages, some brief, to-the-point "bullets," some more elaborate statements. One region of GTE created a four-bullet story, backed up by a comprehensive implementation plan. Earnie Deavenport, chairman and CEO at Eastman Chemical, personally led the effort to create The Eastman Story, a detailed focused message that stipulates what each element of the story means to people throughout the company.

Chapter 9 describes how the focused message acts as a communication filter. Just as in cooking you use a filter or strainer to keep the wrong ingredients from ...

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