Power of Communication Reviewed by Edelman SVP of Digital Corporate and Public Affairs

The big take-away is that the only reason to communicate is to affect a change. Now, that could be anything from increasing revenues to attracting talent to securing permission to enter a market. But the point is that communicating for any other reason will at best waste resources and at worst crowd out other messages you’re trying to get across.

Garcia covers a lot of territory, including using words as precision instruments, why framing matters as much as facts, and how evolution has shaped our brains to interpret stressful events in predictable ways. The most valuable parts of the book are the checklists that guide you through various scenarios and needs. Among them, how to create a communications plan that achieves a business goal, how to know if a situation (like a crisis) requires a response, and how to communicate to people who are in a state of fear and therefore interpreting information in a different way.

I keep one of these checklists in my wallet, a couple on my phone and the others in Evernote. (Try it — tag each list with keywords for situations where you might need it and wham-o, instant guidance.)

In short, you should still read Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War, but you’re best served by reading Helio Fred Garcia’s The Power of Communication first.”