A Bridge By Any Other Name

This is the first of several posts for those who are building their capabilities as spokespersons. 

Probably the core and most important communications technique discussed and practiced in a training session is called – by me and many others – “bridging.”  It comes up in every discussion of media training (or should), though it may be referred to by other words that also convey a sense that the speaker is making a transition from one topic to another.  Two additional terms I have frequently heard for this are, “pivoting” and “steering.”  Those are good words, too, each presenting a slightly different image of the transition process.

Pivoting, or making a pivot,  implies a quick and radical turn, the way a ball player pivots to throw the ball toward first or a politician pivots from one topic to another in a campaign.  Steering carries the image of a speaker leading the listener toward a goal, which is useful.   I like bridging because, for one thing, that’s the way I learned to talk about the process.  More to the point, “bridging” clearly states what speakers must do to move from one topic or aspect of a discussion to another:   create a bridge, a meaningful verbal linkage between an answer to a question and the important information they want to communicate.

Bridging, pivoting, steering – all work best, or work at all, when they happen after an interviewee has answered or at least awknowledged the question at hand.  Bridging is not a process for ignoring questions.  Reporters questions should be answered or addressed in some way.  (The answer could be as simple as, “I don’t know.”)   Bridging is the process of moving on to what you want to talk about after the answer.

At Burson, we used to hand out a booklet with a page of bridging phrases.  Waggish media trainers would occasionally break out in bridging-speak.  “Good point, Rich, but there’s another way to look at this.”  “I hear what you’re saying Don, but let’s not forget the key issue here.”  “That’s an interesting question, Vickee, but let me remind you of something else.”  “Before we go on, Gail, I think we need to put that in perspective.”  “Let’s step back a moment and remind ourselves why we’re here.”

I don’t hand out that page of bridges any more.  As you can see, they can be useful in illustrating what a bridge looks like.  But what really makes bridging (pivoting, steering) happen is the speaker’s determination to tell the story, distilled into specific messages, he or she is passionate about.  Setting important objectives is the driver;  bridging – or whatever term you choose to use – is the enabling technique.