Why it can be hard to stick to a message (and how to make it easier)Maybe calling it 'message discipline' was a mistake.'Discipline' makes staying on-message sound like a chore, and going off-message sound like a deliberate choice, an act of rebellion. I've had it with your message-box rules, daddy-o. I'm sticking it to The Man.But talk to a leader or spokesperson who has gone off-message, and they usually aren't feeling like defiant mavericks.Either a) they don't realize it's happened, or b) they felt helpless in the moment to keep it from happening: 'I know the message is about pensions - but before I knew it, there I was talking about giraffe mucus.'True, we've seen a few deliberate acts of rebellion - some relatively harmless, some profoundly self-sabotaging. But far more often, here's what really throws people off-message:Boredom: Probably the biggest factor. After the thousandth repetition, chances are you're getting pretty tired of your message. So are the folks closest to you, and your strongest activists. more... See more text