Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

In relationships between imperfect people, mistakes are inevitable. And when we find ourselves with damaged connections, it’s a specific kind of communication that can help us make amends. Fred Luskin is the Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Project, and has devoted much of his career to researching the way forgiveness affects our psychological, relational, and physical health. “Apol...

“Listening actively and deeply happens when I genuinely believe that the person who's speaking has intrinsic worth and brings a perspective that I lack and need.” This episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart features Kristin Hansen , lecturer in management and executive director of Civic Health Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to reduce extreme polarization and foster healthier civ...

“Anyone can make a complicated thing sound complicated. It takes real skill to make it sound simple.” This episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart features Steve Blank , seasoned entrepreneur, marketer, and Stanford adjunct professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering.  “Messages need to be memorable,” he tells podcast host and strategic communications lecturer Matt Abrahams. “The m...

“Very often, you are not designing for yourself. And you kind of have to get out of your own way to effectively design with others’ needs in mind.” In this podcast episode, lecturer Matt Abrahams is joined by Sarah Stein Greenberg , Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, aka the Stanford d.school , and author of Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Uncon...

“A mistake that some leaders make is to assume that the people in your organization share your core values. Some of the time some of them do, but there's a bunch who don't, and those are the most difficult sorts of situations.”  In this episode, Political Science professors Neil Malhotra and Ken Shotts sit down with host and lecturer Matt Abrahams, to discuss how to lead others whose values may no...

“You’re not going to hit the mark with everybody, but you still need to be mindful of everybody,” says Jonathan Levav , the King Philanthropies Professor of Marketing. “That’s critical to create an environment where communication is effective.” In this episode, Levav sits down with podcast host Matt Abrahams to talk about the science behind decision fatigue, how to lead effectively while working f...

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , host Matt Abrahams sits down with finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen to talk about their new podcast, All Else Equal . Connect: Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium Email Questions & Feedback >>> hello@fastersmarter.io Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website Newsletter Si...

In this 50th episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , host Matt Abrahams and executive producer Jenny Luna share the winners' plans from our Confident Communicator Challenge and offer new, research-backed techniques for managing nervousness both before and during your communication. Thank you to many, many listeners from all over the world who sent in their anxiety management plans. Connect: Premium Si...

“Make them want to turn the page,” says Paula Moya , a professor at Stanford University and author of The Social Imperative: Race, Close Reading, and Contemporary Literary Criticism .  In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Moya sits down with strategic communication lecturer Matt Abrahams to share how the elements of story can be used in other types of communication. Create compelling situat...

“We have to make data emotional because emotions are what drive us to act,” says Chip Heath , a professor of organizational behavior and author of the new book, Making Numbers Count: The Art of Science of Communicating Numbers . In this interview with host Matt Abrahams, Heath talks about ways that data and statistics can be used to illuminate — or obscure — our message. “A lot of people in the wo...

“Eighty five percent of people report being nervous about speaking in public, and I believe the other 15% are lying,” says Matt Abrahams, lecturer in Strategic Communication and podcast host. “What is it about speaking in front of others that makes most of us nervous? Well, those of us who study this ubiquitous fear believe it is part of our human condition.”  In this special episode of Think Fast...

“Great founders are great storytellers,” says Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Stephanos Zenios in this “Quick Thinks” episode . Zenios is the director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and heads Startup Garage , a project-based course where teams design and test business concepts that address real-world problems. “Founders have to tell a story to their customer so that they...

“To be creative, ideas must be both novel and useful. That’s the definition that we use in creativity research,” says Justin Berg , an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. But, he warns: “Novel ideas are often not very useful and useful ideas are often not very novel.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Berg sits down with lecturer and po...

In each episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Stanford GSB lecturer and podcast host Matt Abrahams asks his guests the same question: “What are the first three ingredients in a successful communication recipe?” Answers have ranged from specific and poetic, to impactful and thought-provoking. In this episode, we bring you some favorite responses, as well as Matt’s tips for solving three common commun...

"Leadership is a role that you play, like a part you play in other people’s lives. And [your] expression of that role is your responsibility as a leader,” says Stanford GSB lecturer Melissa Jones Briggs . Jones Briggs’ work combines techniques from the theater with social science research to teach lessons about power and communication. In this conversation with host Matt Abrahams, she discusses ho...

“Social psychologists believe that if we want to understand our own behavior and the behavior of others, the first thing we have to ask or notice is, ‘What is the situation in which they are performing, in which they are behaving?’ And then we want to know as much about the situation as possible.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Stanford emeritus psychology professor Phillip Zimbardo s...

Being a better listener has a lot to do with silence, says Collins Dobbs , a lecturer in management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “A lot of people are uncomfortable with the smallest modicum of silence, but learning often happens when we create distance for useful reflection.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Dobbs talks with host Matt Abrahams about the importance of “space,...

“Part of teamwork is dating,” says Stefanos Zenios , The Investment Group of Santa Barbara Professor of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Operations, Information & Technology. “Dating each other to see whether you can work well together. It’s about developing how you will speak with each other in the team, how you will manage difficult conversations, and how to be respectful, but also how to h...

“Stress is natural, 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, according to psychologist and associate professor at Stanford, Alia Crum .  In this episode, Crum talks with host and lecturer Matt Abrahams about her re...

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , lecturer and podcast host Matt Abrahams sits down with David Eagleman , a neuroscientist and the host of the PBS series The Brain , to discuss why our brains are wired for storytelling and how new senses might impact our connection and communication with others. “I’ve always been really interested in this idea of how we can pass information to the brain...

“One of the things I think is really exciting about all this, and perhaps a little bit frightening, is nobody actually knows how to do it. It is not something that we’ve ever done before. And I’ve studied a lot of globally distributed work, and virtual teams, and so forth. But hybrid work is not that and it’s not telecommuting, which we know a bit about. But it’s something that is a mix of these m...

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Stanford GSB Lecturer Robert Siegel sits down with Matt Abrahams to discuss the role of communication in helping businesses to adapt and transform and his new book The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of Digital and Physical Specifically . “You have to see how things are interacting with each other. You have to see how y...

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Sara Singe r, a professor of organizational behavior (by courtesy) at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a professor of medicine at Stanford School of Medicine, sits down with lecturer Matt Abrahams to discuss the role of open communication in high-performing teams. “Learning requires leadership that reinforces learning, a supportive environment, i...

“I say sometimes that leadership is a journey into yourself. It’s self-renewal, self-reflection, self-confidence. It’s going to bed kind of scratching your head and saying, “Man, I’m not as good,” and waking up the next morning and trying it again — and I think that’s what matters.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , former CEO of General Electric and Stanford Graduate School of Business...

“Simple language, forceful language, vivid language, and keeping it simple and direct,” says Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer , are all tools to increase the strength of your communication. In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , host and lecturer Matt Abrahams interviews Jeffrey Pfeffer, author of Dying for a Paycheck , about the verbal and nonverbal ways we can harness, or give away, our authority...