The Most Important Word to Remember for Great Communication

My colleagues and I always talk about the five ingredients for great communication. And those five things are as follows:

Clarity, brevity, context, impact and value.

Now, as you think about the last line I just wrote above, which word do you think is most important? Clarity, brevity, context, impact and value. Which of those words is most important?

I think the most important word in that line is the word “and.”

Clarity, brevity, context, impact AND value. I think “and” is the most important word there because all of them are important. To communicate at a high level, you don’t need some of them. You need all of them.

My colleagues and I always talk about clarity and brevity as the entry point to good, professional-level communication. But clarity and brevity are only that… an entry point. In addition to clarity and brevity, the best speakers also know how to make you care about their message. The best speakers also know how to get you engaged and persuade you to act. And if the goal is to persuade you to act, then clarity and brevity only get you part way there.

You also need to provide context or relevance to the audience. You need to make sure your message makes an impact and gets remembered. And you need to make sure that your message contains sufficient value to the audience.

Great communication requires clarity… brevity… context… impact… AND value. All of them.

Have a great day.