Book Review: Super Communicator

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

A book review from Dan BeaulieuSuper Communicator: Explaining the Complicated So Anyone Can UnderstandBy: Frank J. PietruchaCopyright: 2014, AmacomPrice: $17.95            Pages: 258 and index

One of the greatest gifts anyone can have is the ability to communicate. This is especially true when it comes to subjects like technology. An Wang of Wang Computers said years ago, “A true genius is a person who can make difficult things seem easy.” The reason the late Carl Sagan of “billions and billions” fame was so successful is because he was able to take difficult and seemingly boring subjects and make them easy to understand and fascinating.

In this new book by Frank Pietrucha you can learn to do the same: Explain anything in an easy to understand manner.

Think how important and effective this can be to your business. If you are in sales, for example, and are able to describe your products and their benefits in a way that your customers are going to understand you will be that much more successful. Think about it...marketing is all about effective communication.

Through a number of very pertinent, real-life examples, the author demonstrates how you can take complicated things and make them seem easy. The first example he uses is how to explain Higgs Boson. It doesn’t get more complicated than that right? The author shows how by what he calls, “delivering meaning.” In other words, making your explanation meaningful to your audience. He was able to explain this complicated discovery so that everyone could understand not only what it was, but, more importantly, why it was so meaningful to all of us. So for those of us who did not understand the importance of this discovery, here's his explination:

The discovery of the elusive Higgs boson confirms the theory that scientists have been using to understand how the universe works. Physicists are celebrating this breakthrough because it can lead to other significant findings like the discovery of quantum mechanics did almost a century ago. Quantum mechanics lead to the invention of many of the twentieth century’s most notable technologies…like cell phones, computers, and even the atomic bomb. The discovery of the Higgs boson could me equally important…if not more so. It can lead to innovations we can’t yet imagine.

Okay now I get it.

The book is filled with tools we can use to also become “Super Communicators.” The author shows us how to use his simple guidelines effectively. Here are a few basic guidelines:

• Lead with the conclusion;
• Use big words sparingly;
• Combat jargon use;
• Avoid acronyms;
• Short sentences and short paragraphs;
• Sync your message to your audience’s culture; and
• Make it error free.

And the one guideline that is the most important: Humanize your message. In other words, make it relatable to your immediate audience.

I have yet to find a book on communications that addresses these very important issues in such an effective way. It provides all of us who have to communicat (which is all of us) with the tools we need to be better communicators.

Check this book out and start your journey to becoming a super communicator and successfully get your point across.