This episode we're sharing an excerpt from Matt Abrahams's audiobook, Think Faster, Talk Smarter . Listen in as Matt explains how to think like a movie director, where a mistake isn't a grave error, but rather a "missed takes" and an opportunity to try again with a new approach. This audio excerpt is 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...
Oct 24, 2023•18 min•Season 5Ep. 112
“Sparking communication starts with asking why or what or how.” On this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Tina Seelig , the Professor of the Practice at Stanford’s department of management science and engineering and the executive director of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, chats with host and lecturer Matt Abrahams about the importance of asking questions about everything we do. “Having a mindset of curiosity opens the door to great communication,” Seelig says. “The more questions you a...
Oct 16, 2023•25 min•Season 5Ep. 111
Whatever you’re writing, Todd Rogers says most people are too busy to read it. That’s why, he says, “you want to make it as easy as possible for them." Rogers is a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the author of the book Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World . From text messages to fundraising letters to political speeches, Rogers says effective writing makes it “easy for busy readers to navigate what we send them, pull ...
Oct 10, 2023•28 min•Season 5Ep. 110
You said it. But did they hear it? For Frances Frei , communication is about saying things simply enough for an audience to truly understand. As a professor of technology and operations management at Harvard Business School, Frei knows that shaping culture within organizations requires communicating in ways that influence how people think and act. The problem for many leaders, she says, is that when we “understand something deeply, we describe it in a complicated way. If you want broad influence...
Oct 03, 2023•25 min•Season 5Ep. 109
If you’re reading from your notes, you're going to miss the magic of the moment. That’s why Adam Tobin , Dan Klein , and Patricia Ryan Madsen bring improv techniques to all their communication. Communication experts in their respective fields of media, performance, and drama, Tobin, Klein, and Madsen all see the immense power of improv in helping us communicate more freely. As Tobin says, "You do the preparation so that you are expert in the material. And then you let go of the specific delivery...
Sep 26, 2023•34 min•Season 5Ep. 108
In this episode, executive producer Jenny Luna interviews host and strategic communications lecturer Matt Abrahams about the tips and tools in his new book, Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot Connect: Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium Email Questions & Feedback >>> [email protected] Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website Newsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> F...
Sep 19, 2023•21 min•Season 5Ep. 107
In January of 2020 we launched Think Fast Talk Smart with the goal of helping people improve their communication skills. Now, with more than 100 episodes and an engaged audience tuning in from more than 200 countries, we're proud to take you back to the very first episode, where the magic began. As we've discussed multiple times on the show, most professional communication is spontaneous in nature. It’s providing feedback in the moment, answering questions, introducing people. On this inaugural ...
Sep 12, 2023•23 min•Season 5Ep. 106
Moving forward in our careers often means giving and receiving feedback. But how candid can we be in communicating with others? For Kim Scott , anything less than radical just isn’t enough. An executive, speaker, author, and executive coach, Scott is known for her concept of Radical Candor , which she defines as “caring personally and challenging directly at the same time." By mapping communication onto the axes of caring and challenging, she derives four quadrants of feedback behavior: radical ...
Sep 05, 2023•34 min•Season 5Ep. 105
"We're wired to look for the path of least resistance and efficiency, and that's normally a good thing, but it can get in the way when we want to make a change," says Wharton professor Katy Milkman . Through her research on decision making and in her recent book How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want To Be , Milkman examines the many barriers we create for ourselves when it comes to achieving goals. "Who you surround yourself [is important] with because we hav...
Aug 29, 2023•25 min•Season 4Ep. 104
The best communicators express ideas simply. And to do that, says Carmine Gallo, “you have to connect with people in a language they understand.” Gallo is an author, communication coach, and lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. For him, the cornerstone of good communication is empathizing with an audience enough to truly speak their language. “Think about the audience first,” he says. “If you cannot speak the same language to different stakeholders and adapt the language for those ...
Aug 22, 2023•23 min•Season 4Ep. 103
What does it take to have a presence that’s felt by those around us? According to Muriel Wilkins, the answer is simple: Be present. “Having presence, at the root of it, [is] your ability to be present,” says Wilkins, a C-suite advisor, executive coach, and host of the HBR podcast, Coaching Real Leaders . Working with some of the business world’s top brass, Wilkins helps leaders discover how they can use presence to communicate more effectively, lead more authentically, and create more impact in ...
Aug 15, 2023•24 min•Season 4Ep. 102
When it comes to emotional and physical wellbeing, Psychology professor Geoffrey Cohen says there is one healthy behavior that outweighs the others: authentic connection. “It is really, really important,” he says. Deep connections with other people are foundational to a happy and healthy life. As Cohen explores in his new book, Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides , achieving a sense of belonging isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s essential. “That sense of connection ...
Aug 08, 2023•24 min•Season 4Ep. 101
What does it take to be a more effective communicator? According to Dan Lyons , it starts with knowing when to shut your mouth. As a journalist, author, and screenwriter, Lyons knows a thing or two about wielding words. But as he reveals in his book, STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World , most of us talk too much and listen too little. “A great conversation is about listening. And it probably involves you talking less,” he says. In this episode of Think Fast, Ta...
Aug 01, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 100
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, pace, and grace” when you’re receiving others’ feedback and handling the emotions that come out dur...
Jul 25, 2023•24 min•Season 4Ep. 99
How do we deal with professional blind spots? According to David Dodson , MBA ’87, we need the panoramic perspective of those who work around us. “360 reviews, done properly, are a massive competitive weapon,” says Dodson, also a lecturer in management at Stanford GSB and author of the new book, The Manager’s Handbook . Such comprehensive and constructive feedback, he says, can be transformational for employees and managers alike. “The first time I did a 360 review and got feedback was a massive...
Jul 18, 2023•23 min•Season 4Ep. 98
Communication is like a game. For it to work, each person has to trust that their partner will play by the rules. As Professor Anat Admati says, the same is true for corporations and their stakeholders. “To have good governance, you need trust and accountability,” says Admati, a professor of finance and economics and the director of the Corporations and Society Initiative . How does a society ensure that markets, businesses, and governments are all on the same page? As Admati says, “We need rule...
Jul 11, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 97
Why is a boat a “she?” Why give names like Alexa or Siri to inanimate pieces of software? According to assistant professor of organizational behavior Ashley Martin , ascribing gender to everyday objects helps us to connect with them more deeply. “Gender is this humanizing force that allows people to interact with non-human things as if they’re human,” says Martin, whose research focuses on gender equality, gender inclusion, and gender’s role within team and organizational dynamics. And while Mar...
Jun 27, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 96
Saying no can seem risky. We worry about offending others, damaging relationships, or hurting our own reputation. But as Vanessa Patrick says, no is an empowering word that gives us greater agency in our lives. Saying no “is not a rejection of the other person,” says Patrick, a professor of Marketing at the University of Houston. Instead, it allows you to set boundaries and “[give] voice to what you believe and what you care about.” In her book, The Power of Saying No , Patrick introduces what s...
Jun 20, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 95
Breaking new ground, Think Fast, Talk Smart steps into the world of live events, bringing together an eager audience of LEAD students from Stanford University and a top-notch panel of former podcast guests: Jesper B. Sørensen , Sarah Soule , Jonathan Levav ,and Szu-chi Huang . Topics include crafting strategy for successful leadership and tips on how to effectively lead a hybrid team. This episode also features an interactive audience segment, where various participants of the Stanford LEAD prog...
Jun 13, 2023•29 min•Season 4Ep. 94
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 , or “Touchy Feely,” as it’s affectionately known on campus. In her work with students and as a CEO coach, she encourages people to get better acquainted with their feelings. “Feelings are data,” she says. “In the rest of our logical lives, we would never make decisions on bad or highl...
Jun 06, 2023•19 min•Season 4Ep. 93
“What people regret over time are things they didn't do. They didn't take that trip, they didn't ask that person out on a date. They didn't start that business,” says former political speech writer and best-selling author Dan Pink . “I think it's because we are slightly over-indexed on risk. We overstate the risk in many circumstances.” On this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , strategic communications lecturer Matt Abrahams sits down with Pink to hear how we should all take more risks and how...
May 30, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 92
We’re often advised not to use “um” or “uh”, or “so” and “you know” in our communication. But linguist Valerie Fridland might argue otherwise. “Language is about how we encode both the linguistic message and a social message,” she says. “Crutch words … are really valuable and they have arisen to serve a need.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Fridland sits down with host and strategic communications lecturer Matt Abrahams to discuss how and when we use "you know","so", and other fille...
May 23, 2023•31 min•Season 4Ep. 91
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 via unusual channels,” Eagleman says. “We’ve got our eyes or ears or fingertips and our nose, we’re v...
May 16, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 90
Whether you’re trying to build a romantic or professional connection, Rachel Greenwald’s advice is exactly the same. “Focus on how you make someone feel more than you focus on the words that you're saying,” she says. As a professional coach, Greenwald helps people develop better communication skills, from executives in the business world to singles in the dating world. Building deep connections may at times be challenging, but as Greenwald says, it’s ultimately not complicated. “You're demonstra...
May 09, 2023•26 min•Season 4Ep. 89
*This episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart won " Best Business Podcast Episode " at the 2023 Webby Awards.* “You’re not going to hit the mark with everybody, but you still need to be mindful of everybody,” says Jonathan Levav , a professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “That’s critical to create an environment where communication is effective.” In this podcast episode, Levav sits down with podcast host Matt Abrahams to talk about how to lead from home and how to foster an en...
May 02, 2023•22 min•Season 4Ep. 88
We’ve all been there — we think we understand something, but when it comes time to explain it to someone else, we flounder. According to Gregory LaBlanc , a lecturer in management at Stanford GSB, attempting to communicate concepts reveals whether or not we properly grasped them in the first place. “If you think you understand something but you're incapable of communicating it, it probably means that you don't really understand it,” he says. For communication to be effective, LaBlanc says it’s n...
Apr 25, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 87
Whether you want to read more books or exercise more regularly, BJ Fogg has good news. “Habits are easier to form than most people think,” he says, “If you do it in the right way.” As the founder and director of Stanford's Behavior Design Lab , Fogg has devoted much of his career to researching human psychology, motivation, and behavior. According to him, habit formation isn’t a product of simply doing something over and over again. “It's not a function of repetition,” he says, “it's a function ...
Apr 18, 2023•20 min•Season 4Ep. 86
Having to communicate in a language other than our native tongue can be quite a challenge, especially without a script or prepared speech. In this "Rethinks" episode, we revisit Matt's conversation with Kenneth Romeo about specific tactics that non-native speakers can use to handle in-the-moment challenges. Romeo also discusses why letting go of perfection is a key step toward speaking with confidence. Romeo has served as the associate director of the Stanford Language Center and a teacher of En...
Apr 11, 2023•15 min•Season 4Ep. 85
“The self is incompatible with freedom, the way most people understand it, because the self is a constraint,” says social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior Brian Lowery . “The ‘you’ you’re talking about is actually the relationships you have, the social interactions you have and the cultural context you exist in." In this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Lowery sits down with podcast host and lecturer in strategic communications Matt Abrahams to talk about his...
Apr 04, 2023•16 min•Season 4Ep. 84
“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 ...
Mar 28, 2023•20 min•Season 4Ep. 83
