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<''Reading TALK is like having a conversation with the world''s best conversationalist'' Angela Duckworth
The leading Harvard professor shows how we can all become better at conversation - and why this will help us all thrive
Conversation is at the heart of our relationships and our decision-making. From meeting a colleague to saying goodnight to our loved ones, our days are filled with verbal communication -- but the science of everyday conversation is little known. We may spend time thinking about difficult exchanges, but research shows that there''s room to improve seemingly easy interactions too.
In Talk, Harvard professor Alison Wood Brooks shows how simple changes in how we communicate can enhance our relationships, our performance at work and our lives; who we talk to affects our happiness; and how to talk across differences. Her original research, based on thousands of conversations from sales calls to speed dating, provides fascinating insights.
For instance:
We spend much more time thinking about what we''ll wear to an occasion than thinking about what we''ll say when we get thereThe author''s own research on the surprising power of questions reveals the superpower of follow-up questions - especially when datingManagers who were randomly assigned to make one joke in one conversation were more likely to be voted into leadership positions
Learning to converse even a little more effectively can make a big difference. Through her original TALK framework - Topics, Asking, Levity and Kindness - Wood Brooks will give you the tools that her MBA students say transforms their lives. Bringing together psychology, linguistics, sociology and neuroscience, Talk will show how we can use science to help us enrich our lives, one conversation at a time.<>
About the author
Alison Wood Brooks is the O’Brien Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Her oversubscribed course ‘TALK: How to Talk Gooder in Business and Life’ helps MBA students hone their conversational skills. Her research has featured in two of the twenty most popular TED Talks of all time as well as in Pixar’s film Inside Out 2. She was named an American Psychological Society Rising Star in 2017 and one of the ‘Best 40 Under 40 MBA Professors’ by Poets & Quants
