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Poor Communication isn’t the Source of Most Conflicts
Knowing the source of conflict is one of the first steps to dealing with it effectively. It’s easy to blame communication as the source of conflict, but it’s not always the case. In fact, it usually...
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What’s Their Story
“What’s their story?” … With one cutting question, my manager exposed the fact a colleague had only one side of the story — their own. We make up stories every day either to explain our own actions or...
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The Power of Patterns and Practices
When you name something it’s powerful. You have a way to reference it and share it with others. Patterns are named problem and solution pairs. They are a simple way to build and share a catalog of...
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Know, Believe, and Do
One of the most helpful frames we’ve found at work for focusing meetings or presentations is: Know – What do you want them to know? Believe – What do you want them to believe? Do – What do you want...
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Top 10 Lessons in Improving Communication
“ They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Carl W. Buechner Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Eduard Ezeanu. Eduard blogs at People Skills Decoded...
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Lessons Learned from Dr. K on Interpersonal Skills and the Art of Persuasion
"If you have to be right, you’re doing it wrong." — Dr. Rick Kirschner When it comes to people skills, Dr. Rick Kirschner (Dr.K) sets the bar. He’s co-author of the best-selling book, Dealing with...
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Lessons Learned from Crucial Conversations
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Eric Brun on lessons learned from the book, Crucial Conversations. Eric is a colleague at Microsoft, and he leads a development team. As you can imagine,...
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The 5 Levels to Communicating More Effectively
“One learns peoples through the heart, not the eyes or the intellect.” — Mark Twain If you have a mental model for communication, then you can move your way up the communication stack more...
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It’s the Synthesis
“Get the habit of analysis — analysis will in time enable synthesis to become your habit of mind.” — Frank Lloyd Wright Synthesis is a powerful way to distill information. You can boil down ideas and...
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Book Review: Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for...
Presenting ideas is hard. If you want to be a more effective presenter, you can learn a system. By having a system, you can get better with time. Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and...
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The Elusive 600: Your Spare Mental Bandwidth
“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” — Peter Drucker You have mental capacity for 750 words per minute. People speak at about 150 words per minute. That leaves 600...
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The Power of Three for Effective Communication
“Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.” — Jim Rohn The secret of effective communication is The Power of 3. We find things easier to follow when we...
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10 Big Ideas from BRIEF
“Brevity is the soul of wit.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet I finished reading Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less, by Joseph McCormack. It’s a brilliant book on the art and science of brevity....
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Schotoma: Why You Can’t See What’s Right in Front of You
Sometimes people can’t see (or hear) what’s right in front of them. Sometimes it’s opportunities. Sometimes it’s something they are looking for. Has this every happened to you? Somebody is asking...
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9 Fundamental Laws of Effective Communication Skills
“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” — Brian Tracy How...
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Gain and Loss Framing
“An evil gain equals a loss.” — Syrus Should you focus on the positive benefits? Or, should you focus on the cost or risk or loss of not doing something? If you want to be more persuasive, you need to...
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The Presenter’s Paradox: More is Less
“This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.” — Winston Churchill When it comes to presenting information, more is not more. It’s less. In fact, “more” can do more...
View ArticleHow To Be a Better Listener
Listening is a skill and you can get better with practice. Skilled listening can help you connect with others, learn faster, win friends, and influence people. The post How To Be a Better Listener...
View ArticleIt’s the Synthesis
Synthesis is a powerful way to distill information. You can boil down ideas and communicate the key take away. You can take a few ideas and combine them to form something new. Victor Cheng teaches us a...
View ArticleStories that Move Mountains Book Summary
Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations, by Martin Sykes, A. Nicklas Malik, and Mark D. West, introduces the CAST system for creating visual stories....
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