Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

When it comes to negotiating and managing conflict, Professor Michele Gelfand says it’s time to get creative.

Everybody has wants and needs. So what do we do when our priorities compete with those of other people? According to Gelfand, a professor of organizational behavior, negotiations and conflict management are exercises in creative problem-solving, ones where we look for ways to not only get what we want, but for those on the other side of the table to get what they want too. “The best negotiators tend to be the most creative,” says Gelfand.

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Gelfand joins Matt Abrahams to discuss how creative communication can help us find solutions where everybody wins.

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“If you're not living life according to your own values, you're most likely living them according to someone else's,” says Charlotte Burgess-Auburn.

Burgess-Auburn is a designer, artist, educator, and the Director of Community at the d.school. With her recently published guide, You Need A Manifesto: How To Craft Your Convictions And Put Them To Work, she aims to help people identify their core values and then codify them to chart a course of meaning and purpose.

“A manifesto is a statement of purpose and a script for action,” she says, “a compass [and] navigation tool to help you find your way.” As she and Matt Abrahams discuss on this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, a personal manifesto can help us communicate our deepest values — first to ourselves, and then to the world.

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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 people’s potential, and building successful teams and organizations.

As Morgan explains, owning up to your mistakes and struggles might make you vulnerable, but it doesn’t necessarily make you a leader. In his latest book, Leading with Vulnerability: Unlock Your Greatest Superpower to Transform Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization, Morgan lays out why leading with vulnerability goes a step further, saying, “Here's what I learned from the mistake that I made [and] steps that I'm going to put into place to make sure this doesn't happen again.”

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Gain control over your speaking and excel in your communication.

For the first anniversary of his book Think Faster, Talk Smarter, Matt Abrahams shares strategies from the first chapter, focusing on managing speaking anxiety and improving spontaneous communication. Through personal anecdotes and practical techniques, he explains how to handle unexpected questions, reframe anxiety as excitement, and use mindfulness and breathing exercises to stay calm under pressure. The episode also offers tips for managing physical symptoms of anxiety and staying mentally focused during high-stakes situations

Audio excerpt courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio from THINK FASTER, TALK SMARTER by Matt Abrahams, read by the author. Copyright 2023 by Matthew Abrahams LLC. Used with permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Reference Links:

• Link to buy book in your country: Think Faster, Talk Smarter
• Ep.48 Speaking Up Without Freaking Out: How to Tackle Communication Anxiety

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Chapters:

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:09) - The Onion Interview
• (02:51) - Speaking Up Without Freaking Out
• (05:19) - The ABCs of Speaking Anxiety
• (06:33) - Mindfulness Matters
• (08:51) - Reframe Anxiety as Excitement
• (10:15) - Cooling Down and Managing Physical Symptoms
• (14:04) - Taming Negative Thoughts
• (15:15) - The Power of Repetition
• (15:53) - Preparing Questions
• (18:18) - Rationalizing the Odds
• (19:21) - Conclusion

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As Professor Jesper Sørensen sees it, a winning strategy is the result of conversations, not commands.

Sørensen says strategy can be directed from the C-suite, but it doesn’t have to be. “Lots of great strategies are discovered,” he says, “they're discovered because the leaders were able to listen to their frontline workers or their frontline managers.” A more iterative approach, says Sørensen, helps companies adapt their strategy to an ever-changing landscape.

In the latest episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Sørensen joins host and lecturer Matt Abrahams to discuss how organizations can use better communication to craft better strategies.

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• Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn

Episode Reference Links:

• Making Great Strategy: Arguing for Organizational Advantage, by Jesper B. Sørensen Glenn R. Carroll
• Class Takeaways: Crafting and Leading Strategy: Five lessons in five minutes — Professor Jesper Sørenson teaches how to create and implement a successful business strategy.

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