Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

Preparing to speak in front of a skeptical audience is more than thinking about objections beforehand – there are specific techniques you can use to respond to these challenging situations without sounding defensive, evasive, or dismissive. Here, we offer a few key tips for how to handle skepticism with aplomb. In this episode, host Matt Abrahams and Stanford GSB lecturer Burt Alper share how to p...

Whether you're looking to boost your productivity, find more joy in your work, or simply be more present in the moment, you need flow — and research by Assistant Professor David Melnikoff could help you find it. Melnikoff investigates how we pursue our goals, and how flow — the state of being totally immersed and engaged in what we’re doing — can help us achieve them. According to him, flow isn’t...

From the way you communicate, to the way build your life and career, Graham Weaver , MBA ’99, says it’s about “giving yourself permission to fully be yourself. You can never go wrong when you’re saying your truth.” Weaver is a lecturer in management, a GSB alum, and the founder and a partner of Alpine Investors. He stresses the importance of direct communication, highlighting how avoiding it can l...

If communication is like painting, words are the primary colors. But to convey deeper meaning, we need a broader color palette, which Dana Carney says requires the mastery of nonverbal communication. We often focus on the words that we say when honing our communication, but according to Carney, there are many instances “where nonverbals start to be more meaningful than verbals.” A professor at Ber...

Disagreement and conflict may look the same on the surface, but the two concepts are, in fact, very different. According to Julia Minson , knowing how these notions differ is crucial to how you approach them.  In this episode of Think Fast Talk Smart , Minson and strategic communication lecturer Matt Abrahams delve into the intricacies of conflict and disagreement. Minson, an associate professor o...

How are you feeling right now? According to Celine Teoh , we all need to ask ourselves that question more often — and be more precise in how we answer it. Teoh is a facilitator of the course Interpersonal Dynamics , one of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s most iconic classes. In her work with students and as a CEO coach, Teoh encourages people to get better acquainted with their feelings. “F...

Join Matt Abrahams with creativity and innovation experts Jeremy Utley and Kian Gohar to explore the transformative potential of AI in the realms of creativity and problem-solving.  If you treat artificial intelligence like an oracle, you’ll likely be disappointed. But if you treat it like a teammate, Utley and Gohar say you’ll be surprised just how helpful a collaborator it can be. Utley, an adju...

Across more than 130 episodes, Think Fast, Talk Smart has touched a lot on what it takes to be a good communicator. But what about reaching that next level? What about being a “supercommunicator”? Supercommunicator is a term used by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Charles Duhigg in his latest book, Supercommunicators : How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection .  In this podcast...

Effective and productive teams and relationships are based on the ability to communicate safely and to fail successfully. In this episode, Amy Edmondson , a professor at Harvard Business School and author of The Right Kind of Wrong : The Science of Failing Well , shares profound insights on the different types of failure—basic, complex, and intelligent—and their implications for learning and innov...

Friction — that’s Professor Huggy Rao ’s metaphor for the forces that hamper workplace efficiency. But as he says, some friction can be helpful — if you know how to use it. In his book, The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder , Rao and coauthor Robert I. Sutton explore how operational obstacles show up in the workplace and, more importantly,...

“Simple language, forceful language, vivid language, and keeping it simple and direct,” says Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer , are all powerful tools to strengthen your communication. Host and Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer Matt Abrahams interviews Pfeffer, the author many books, including Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't , about the verbal and nonverbal ways we can harness...

All too often, we communicate without really connecting. The key to building deep connections with others, says David Brooks , is to make them feel seen and heard. Brooks is a writer for the New York Times , the Atlantic , and the best-selling author of several books. In his latest, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen , he explores how vulnerability — both b...

Join Matt Abrahams engaging with his international audience and answering questions that touch upon some of today's most pressing communication challenges. Matt offers advice on everything from the nuances of crafting clear, impactful questions and navigating emotional dynamics in group settings to maintaining control during presentations and delivering difficult news. Additionally, listeners are...

Matt takes live questions from his worldwide audience and shares a lesson around concision, relevance, accessibly, and precision in messaging. In this "masterclass," he emphasizes the communicator's role as a translator who simplifies complex information for diverse audiences. Key takeaways include the careful use of analogies, considering cultural backgrounds and audience understanding, and provi...

If we want to generate better ideas, then we need to get people back to the office. In this bonus meetings mini-series episode, we feature an episode from the newest podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business – If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society. In this conversation with senior editor Kevin Cool , Professor of Marketing and former TFTS guest Jonathan Levav details his study of remote w...

Whether you’re giving a toast or presenting in a meeting, communication is critical to success in business and in life. Join Matt Abrahams, a lecturer of Strategic Communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business, as he sits down with experts in the field to discuss real-world communication challenges. How do I send my message clearly when put on the spot? How do I give better feedback? How c...

How can we make meetings more effective? How can we keep people engaged and interested? Whether it’s in person or on Zoom, here are a few techniques you can use to make your gatherings more meaningful, productive, and memorable. Get practical tools and actionable insights to actually make meetings matter, as well as knowing when NOT to have a meeting. Join Matt Abrahams in a dynamic conversation w...

Delve into why people hate meetings, explore what hinders their effectiveness, and how to change that. Karin Reed (Emmy Award winner) and Joe Allen (“The Meeting Doctor”) join Matt Abrahams in the first of a two-part series that aims to reshape your approach to meetings and help you make them effective and meaningful, whether in person, virtual or hybrid.  They shed light on the constraints hinder...

The information you receive is only as strong as the questions you ask. This week we revisit Matt's discussion with Debra Schifrin about how to craft inquiries that can lead to better communication outcomes. Questions are also instrumental in building relationships, Schifrin points out. “If you’re asking questions, you’re signaling to the other person that you value them. You’re taking time to lis...

Research-backed techniques on how to beat nervousness in the moment.  In this episode, Matt uses clips from experts from previous Think Fast Talk Smart episodes to provide you with several communication anxiety management techniques to help you feel more comfortable and confident when you communicate. And as a guide to help us learn these techniques, he introduces the ABCs of anxiety management. C...

We have to be vulnerable in order to build trust in our relationships. But as Jacob Morgan says, “Vulnerability for leaders is not the same as it is for everybody else.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Morgan shares with host Matt Abrahams his “vulnerable leadership equation” and how leaders can use it to transform the way they interact with others — creating more trust, unlocking peop...

Matt reflects on all the advice we've heard this season and shares the top 10 takeaways that he’s applying to his own communication: Episode Reference Links: Jonah Berger: episode 80 Rachel Greenwald: episode 89 Dan Pink: episode 92 Vanessa Patrick: episode 95 Carmine Gallo: episode 103 Katy Milkman: episode 104 Kim Scott: episode 105 Francis Frei: episode 109 Patrick McGinnis: episode 113 Julian...

“Stress is natural,” says Alia Crum , an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford. “Stress is inevitable when you’re living a life that’s connected with things you care about. And learning how to embrace it, learning how to work with it is really what helps us thrive and grow and perform at our highest level.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , lecturer and podcast host Matt Abrahams...

What comes to people’s minds when they think about you, and can you control it? Dorie Clark says you can — with the power of your personal brand. According to Clark, “You have brand equity in your own life.” Your personal brand or reputation, she says, “makes things either easier or harder for you” as you pursue your personal and professional goals. The key question, she says, is “What kind of rep...

Communication is about so much more than sharing words. As neuroscientist Shane O’Mara explains, communication is about sharing reality. According to O’Mara, “A conversation is where we create a shared reality together.” As a professor of experimental brain research at Trinity College Dublin, his research has focused on how human brains sync up through communication. “The essence is that we are cr...