It’s Time For A SECS Talk
My Islands of Safety Communication PlayBook
Game Time Scenarios:
You have a critical Board or CEO presentation in 3 days.
You are in the final hours of a large M&A due diligence, preparing for the buyer's investment committee presentation.
You are speaking to the entire company about your financial results.
These are a few examples of some career game time moments.
How you communicate effectively and communicate for influence in these situations can play a critical role in your company and your own career success. When the stakes are high, you need a winning play. Just like the last 5 minutes of any game, how you perform in crunch time will be the difference maker.
It’s Time for a SECS Talk.
Did I catch you off guard? That’s the point. The name SECS Talk is designed to grab your attention and make the concept memorable. When the stakes are high, you need an approach that is easy to recall and effective under pressure. “Naming” something plays a crucial role in making sure you remember the steps when you need them most.
Why the Name Matters
Naming is a powerful part of any communication framework – especially in high-stress, critical situations. Influence is at the heart of leadership, whether it’s in the board room or your all company meeting, and influence is impossible without great communication. That’s where delivering a SECS Talk comes in.
Before I go into details about this communication playbook, here’s a quick personal story:
Early in my career, I believed that success in a critical meeting meant getting through my communication part without a hitch. If the board, the company, or the exec team didn’t challenge me or ask questions, I’d leave the room thinking, “It went great!”
Looking back, I realize that was closer to failing in properly influencing the audience. No pushback or questions means the audience didn’t engage which means they either didn’t care or didn’t understand.
Either way, I was not influential in my communication. Audience engagement is the key indicator that people are interested, invested, and processing what you have to say. Without it, your message isn’t sticking, and you’re missing the opportunity to influence.
The PlayBook: Islands of Safety
Last week, I shared a Communication PlayBook I use almost weekly – and one I coach my clients on whenever I get the chance. The communication framework is called the Islands of Safety. Delivering the Islands of Safety communication framework uses the SECS Talk playbook.
The concept behind Islands of Safety is simple: in any communication, there are certain key points that need to be understood, remembered, and defended. These are your "Islands of Safety." They are the anchor points of your message - the key takeaways that your audience needs to retain, especially when they feel overwhelmed by too many details, data, or worse - rabbit holes.
They are named the Islands of Safety because when you stray off your safe communication island you enter shark infested waters where more often than not you can get eaten alive or get sucked out to sea in a rip current of confusion.
The Purpose of Communication
Before diving into SECS Talk, let’s revisit a fundamental principle: The purpose of any communication is for the audience to remember what you said and, more importantly, to repeat it.
People remember what you say when you build an emotional connection and when you frame and name key concepts that they can easily recall and repeat to others. This is the essence of storytelling. A great story sticks. A great story gets retold. A great story creates impact long after you’ve left the room.
If you do these two things – emotional connection and framing/naming – you’ll be an influential communicator and likely and influential leader.
Don’t just take my word for it. Studies in brain neuroscience confirm these concepts over and over again. When the brain is emotionally engaged, it forms stronger connections, making the message more memorable. If you want to influence effectively, you need to engage people emotionally and deliver your message so clearly that the audience can repeat it.
How the Islands of Safety and the SECS Talk Works
I first learned the Islands of Safety communication playbook over 20+ years ago during media training for an IPO. Since then, I’ve honed it, coached it, and taught it to others. I learned it from literally some of the best communication coaches and top media trainers who worked with Presidents Carter and Bush and many others.
Here’s a fact: 9 out of 10 people in your audience won’t remember more than three key points that any speaker delivers.
Every time I’ve tried communicating more than three points, my audience only remembered on average three or fewer. This is backed by neuroscience and is not opinion. The human brain has a limited capacity for retaining information, especially under stress. This is why limiting your key messages to three points is so effective.
More importantly, in the Game Time scenarios I led off this article with, whether it’s a Board member or a Corp Dev Champion in an M&A process, the goal of your communication is to get that person to repeat your key statements to their partners and the people they need to influence when you are not in the room.
Here’s how to give a SECS Talk:
(S)tatement: Identify and write down 3 key points of what you want your audience to remember. These three statements should be your core influencing ideas—the essential parts of your message that you want your audience to take away. These three statements are your Islands of Safety, the non-negotiable ideas that anchor your communication. You know you have the right “3 islands” when you can quickly swim back to them if you find yourself in those shark infested waters. If you can use one of the 3 islands to answer any question or any objection, you will have a solid communication platform. Note: Naming your 3 Islands is the hardest part of the SECS talk. I find myself spending most of my time making sure my 3 Islands are the right ones.
(E)vidence: Write down 1 to 3 pieces of evidence that support each key statement. Evidence can take many forms: data, anecdotes, analogies, or even personal stories. Try to also “name” your evidence to help solidify each key statement (island), making it more credible and memorable. The stronger your evidence, the more secure your Islands of Safety become.
(C)onclusion: Summarize the key takeaway in a way that’s easy to remember. Your conclusion should reinforce the importance of your key statement and connect them in a way that makes logical sense. The goal here is to make it easy for your audience to restate what you said. Think of it like a bridge connecting your Islands - show how each point relates to the others.
(S)ilence (or Shut Up! if you really want a great name for this “S”):
Once you’ve delivered your points, stop, pause, be silent. Let your audience absorb what you’ve said. They need time to think and/or ask questions. They need time to engage with you. Your goal with your audience is to get them to engage. You need to create this space for them by shutting up. Silence is a powerful tool in speaking. It gives your audience room to internalize your message and shows that you are confident in what you’ve said.
While the Islands of Safety and SECS Talk playbook is seemingly simple, creating the S’s, E’s, and C’s is harder than it sounds and the final S may be the hardest. What used to take me several hours and sometimes days of fine tuning my SECS talk now sometimes takes me less than an hour. Like anything else, using this technique and delivering it takes months and years of practice.
You’ll see these techniques in action in almost every interview of a business figure (think CNBC) or a political leader. Notice how they often focus on just a few key points, delivered succinctly, with supporting evidence to back them up and then they wait patiently (silence) for the next question as the audience (reporters) engage.
Delivering Your Islands of Safety
Once you feel like you’ve created your 3 great Islands of Safety - the (S)tatements you want your audience to remember and repeat - you will also need to build bridges from Island to Island when you find yourself in those shark infested waters or rip currents of confusion.
Tip/Trick: Take the time to write down not only your SECS talk but also your bridging statements. For the first several years of practicing this technique, I would literally take three 3x5 index card and write my (S)tatement in big font at the top of the card and create three bullet points for the “Es” as my crutch or my personal teleprompter that I could quickly reference in any meeting or podium. On the back of each card I would write some key bridging statements to ensure I stayed out of the shark infested waters. Bridging statements are also knows as objection handling and are used in anticipation of answering objections or taking back control of the conversation when needed.
Examples of Bridging Statements:
“That’s an interesting question and it relates to one of my key points in the following way…”
Example: Many CFOs' Islands of Safety should stem from their overarching financial 1st Principles or Financial Philosophy. A CFO typically has so many details and numbers in their arsenal, and many times they lose their audience in the details.
Example Island #1: 💰 REVENUE GROWTH – Maintain at least X% annual growth. This is about setting clear revenue expectations that everyone in the room can understand and remember. Revenue growth is a metric that matters to nearly everyone—executives, employees, and investors alike.
Example Island #2: 💸 CASH – Cash Balance, Burn Rate, Months of Runway. Cash is critical, especially in uncertain economic conditions. Make sure your audience understands your current cash position and how it impacts the company's sustainability and growth.
Example Island #3: 📊 KEY METRICS – The required proof points needed by investors to ensure a successful next round of funding. These could include customer acquisition metrics, market expansion indicators, or product milestones that show tangible progress.
Your islands will likely change based on your audience and what you want them to remember or do after your stop talking. Remember, the purpose is to make the message simple enough that it can be remembered and repeated when you’re not there.
Once you have established your islands, you deliver your communication with a SECS Talk.
S = Statement
E = Evidence
C = Conclusion
S = Silence (Shut up!)
Final Thoughts
Next time you’re in a high-stakes moment—whether in a business, a negotiation, or a personal conversation—use SECS Talk. It will help your message stick and make a lasting impact. When you use the Islands of Safety approach, you ensure that your message is clear, memorable, and influential.
The next time you find yourself in a crunch-time situation, ask yourself: What are my 3 key points? What is my data? How can I conclude in a way that makes these points resonate and stick? Then deliver your SECS Talk with confidence, and let the silence do its work.
Effective communication isn’t just about speaking—it’s about influencing, connecting, and making sure your message is remembered long after the conversation ends.
Game on.
