So What?: How to Communicate What Really Matters to Your Audience

CHAPTER 7WINGING IT VERSUS ORCHESTRATION

"I SKATE TO WHERE THE PUCK IS GOING TO BE."—WAYNE GRETSKY

It was a cold day in Geneva, Switzerland in 1985 when Ronald Reagan did something that helped create his nickname “The Great Communicator.” He was meeting Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to discuss a potential reduction in the arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union. The meeting was the first attempt to create a thaw in the Cold War since Gorbachev had come into power.

Because of his life experience and knowledge of what had happened under the leadership of the Communist party, President Reagan had, prior to the meeting, repeatedly referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.”

Premier Gorbachev had basically the same views of the ...