Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

How to tap the full power of your voice. Being present in communication isn’t just mental. It’s about the physical energy you bring into a space — particularly, says Patsy Rodenburg , the presence of your voice. “The physical presence of the human being is the most important thing we have,” says Rodenburg. As a world-renowned expert in voice, speech, and presentation, she has helped everyone from...

How to design meetings with purpose so they actually move work forward. Meetings are a necessary part of work. But for many people, they’re also a major source of frustration. According to Rebecca Hinds , meetings don’t have to feel like a drain—better meetings start when we stop treating them as a default and start designing them with intention. Hinds is the author of Your Best Meeting Ever: Seve...

Why your best life isn’t about having the right answers, but about asking the right questions. Finding meaning and purpose in life isn’t about having all the answers. For Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, it’s about having the courage and curiosity to constantly engage with the questions. As designers, Burnett and Evans have careers spanning everything from academia to companies like Apple, Electronic...

How “spaciousness” helps teams move beyond busywork — and build the conditions for honest conversation. “We’re just so busy right now” is one of the most common reasons cultures don’t change — and it’s exactly what Megan Reitz set out to understand. In her research, she describes two modes of attention at work: doing mode, where focus narrows to tasks, control, and quick progress, and spacious mod...

Why it’s critical to say what needs to be said — and listen when others do the same. Speak out, listen up — these are Megan Reitz’s core pillars of workplace communication. According to her, healthy organizations are only possible when everyone can say what they think, and they know they’ll be heard. Reitz is an academic and author whose work focuses on creating workplaces where all voices are hea...

Why it’s not about being born a great communicator, but becoming one. The greatest communicators aren’t always great from the start. As Lerone Martin knows, even the great Martin Luther King Jr. had to practice before he could persuade. Martin is the Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor at Stanford, and as director of the King Research and Education Institute, he has spent years studying ho...

Why being kind is the best investment. Can kindness be a company’s competitive advantage? Bonnie Hayden Cheng says yes — and she’s got a business metric to prove it: return on kindness. Cheng is a professor of management at City University of Hong Kong who researches how workplace behaviors affect interpersonal dynamics and well-being. In her book, The Return on Kindness , she explores how organiz...

The keys to communicating clarity, not confusion. What separates communicators who clarify from those who confuse? The ability to “Simplify complexity,” says Adam Bryant . “I don't think you can be an effective leader if you can't do that.” Bryant is a senior managing director at the ExCo Group and former New York Times journalist who interviewed over 500 CEOs for his renowned Corner Office column...

How to have more open conversations about money. Talking about money is taboo for many people. But according to Wendy De La Rosa , financial well-being only starts when we break the silence around finance. De La Rosa is a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a co-founder of the Common Cents Lab, an initiative aiming to increase financial well-being for low- to moder...

Our 10 favorite communication insights from 2025. The most transformative communication insights are the ones we actually remember to use. That’s why host Matt Abrahams is taking stock of his favorite communication tips from this year, so we can carry them into the next. In this annual Think Fast, Talk Smart tradition, Abrahams shares his top 10 communication insights from guests over the past yea...

Presenting complex information for your audience to understand. As communicators, we often need to take complex information (e.g., financial, technical, or scientific) and make it more understandable for our audience – we’re experts and they likely aren’t. But having so much knowledge on the topics we discuss can often make the job more difficult: we dive in too quickly, forget about our audience'...

Why good communication requires presence, not performance. Effective communication isn't about perfecting your performance. According to Dr. Kate Mason , it's about being powerfully present. Mason is a world champion debater, executive communication coach, and author of the book Powerfully Likeable . In her work coaching senior executives to communicate more effectively, she emphasizes that it’s n...

Celebrate our 250th episode with expert strategies that make tough conversations easier — and more meaningful. Some of the most meaningful shifts in how we communicate come from the moments that challenge us the most. In this special 250th episode of Think Fast Talk Smart , Matt Abrahams reflects on the insights that have shown him how conflict can become a catalyst for clarity, connection, and ev...

The right rituals—and the right conversations—can transform how your team collaborates. Strong collaboration starts with thoughtful practices and clear communication. As Molly Sands , Head of the Teamwork Lab at Atlassian, emphasizes, the teams that thrive are the ones that regularly pause to align on what matters and how they’re progressing. “You want to know if you’re making progress,” she notes...

The secret to effective teamwork and collaboration. To collaborate, we have to communicate. As Molly Sands knows, “The more that we can get on the same page, the more effective we are.” Sands is a behavioral scientist and the head of the Teamwork Lab at Atlassian, where she researches how teams can collaborate more effectively and efficiently, especially in distributed and hybrid work environments...

Two new Think Fast Talk Smart AI tools put communication skills to the test in real time. Technology promises many things, but few experiments illustrate its potential more vividly than a coach in conversation with his own digital counterpart. In this episode, Matt Abrahams introduces two new AI-powered tools from the Think Fast Talk Smart Online Learning Community: Coach Matt and Chat Matt. Train...

Why good communication is the key to good communities. Community and communication go hand-in-hand. For Sandy Pentland , the culture and cohesion of any group “has to do with the stories [people] tell each other.” Pentland is a professor at MIT, where he helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab. As a pioneer in computational social science, he’s using data to map social networks and decode commu...

Why community is the most powerful tool for transformation. Community isn't just a feel-good buzzword. According to Gina Bianchini , it's a catalyst for personal and collective transformation. Bianchini is the CEO and founder of community-building platform, Mighty Networks, and author of the book Purpose: Design a Community and Change Your Life . "Community is when people come together, and every...

Reduce speaking anxiety and achieve your communication goals. “There’s no difference between the physiological response to something that you’re excited about and something that you’re nervous about or dreading,” says Andrew Huberman, associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University. In this Think Fast Talk Smart Rethinks episode, we revisit one of our most popular inte...

Transform how you communicate with tools that make your message stick. Sometimes the best way to explain an idea is to show it. That’s why Loom was built — to make communication more visual, authentic, and efficient. By combining video, screen sharing, and AI-powered editing, Loom helps teams connect and collaborate asynchronously, no matter where they are. In this episode of the Think Fast, Talk...

How to unlock the power of groups through collective communication. They say teamwork makes the dream work. But as Colin Fisher knows, unlocking the power of groups requires a specific kind of collective communication. Fisher is an associate professor of organizations and innovation at University College London School of Management and author of The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret Power of G...

How to identify and rewrite the limiting beliefs holding you back. Achieving what you want in life doesn’t just hinge on what you believe about your future. According to Muriel Wilkins , it has just as much to do with what you believe about your past and present. Wilkins is an executive coach, author, and host of the HBR podcast Coaching Real Leaders . In her new book, Leadership Unblocked: Breakt...

Transform how you communicate with tools that make your message stick. Meetings are where collaboration happens — but too often, scheduling them feels like the biggest barrier to meaningful connection. That’s why Calendly was created: to simplify scheduling and make time for what truly matters — the conversation itself. In this episode of the Think Fast, Talk Smart Tech Tools miniseries, host Matt...

When we truly listen, every conversation changes — including the one with ourselves. Listening isn’t about waiting for your turn to speak — it’s about being present enough to truly hear. In a world full of noise, slowing down to listen can feel like a radical act. Yet it’s in those moments of stillness and attention that real understanding begins. In this special Ask Matt Anything episode of Think...

Why we learn the most when we accept that we might be wrong. Effective communication isn’t about having all the answers. As Astro Teller knows, it’s about finding (and sometimes fumbling) your way through the questions. Teller is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and inventor who serves as Captain of Moonshots at X, Alphabet's Moonshot Factory. In his work leading teams toward audacious solution...