What makes a great conversation? “Many of us dread small talk,” says Harvard Business School professor and author Alison Wood Brooks . Yet she believes these everyday exchanges are the gateway to deeper connection and opportunity. An expert in the science of conversation, Wood Brooks, teaches a popular course titled Talk and has spent years researching what makes a great conversation. "Big things often start with small talk," she notes. "It’s not about avoiding it; it’s about knowing how to u...
Nov 19, 2024•25 min
Introducing our new Premium membership , designed to enhance communication and career skills with expanded content and tools. Enjoy early access to live events, AMAs (Ask Matt Anything), eQuips—Essential Quick Insight Playlists—Extended Deep Thinks episodes, and the AI Chat Matt tool. The focus is on building a global community where members can connect, share insights, and receive feedback. A portion of membership fees will support charities dedicated to developing communication skills worldwid...
Nov 14, 2024•3 min
Make your message memorable. “Immediately forgettable” — that’s how Matthew Dicks describes most of the business communication that he encounters. If you want to be remembered, he says, it’s time to tell stories. A veteran elementary school teacher, storytelling coach, and best-selling author, Dicks knows how the right narrative can transform mundane messages into stories that stick. In his book, Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling , he ex...
Nov 12, 2024•25 min
Beyond the Big Screen. Every business meeting, product launch, or marketing communication has something in common with your favorite movie: they all succeed or fail based on their ability to make you feel something. Just ask Jeff Small , CEO of Amblin Partners. "Good stories win," says Small, who leads one of the world's most renowned independent film and television companies alongside Steven Spielberg. As both a business leader and storytelling expert, Small knows that successful communication ...
Nov 05, 2024•23 min
Why practice is the key to success. If there’s anyone who knows about performing under pressure, it’s former NFL quarterback Andrew Luck . Whether playing in front of thousands or presenting to ten, his key to success is practice. "There's a romantic notion that you rise to the occasion," says Luck, a Stanford graduate and four-time Pro Bowl selection. "But I think you settle to the level of your training. We practiced those high-pressure situations all the time.” From calling critical game-winn...
Oct 29, 2024•20 min
Create more meaningful communication by defining your audience. Before you even think about communicating a message, defining a brand, or developing a strategy, Seth Godin says you have to ask these questions: “Who’s it for? What’s it for? And what’s the change [you] seek to make?” As a best-selling author, entrepreneur, and marketing expert, Godin understands that effective communication rests on purpose and intent. “Branding is not logoing,” he says, but a “promise” that an individual or compa...
Oct 22, 2024•23 min
The inner workings of social influence and persuasion. Want to change someone’s mind? First, explains Robert Cialdini , you have to change their framing. For Cialdini, the Regent's Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, persuasion begins before we even deliver our pitch or presentation. Through what he calls “ Pre-suasion ,” communicators can prime audiences to receive messages in a specific way, simply by drawing their attention in specific directions. “It i...
Oct 15, 2024•29 min
How acceptance and authenticity can transform all of our interactions. What’s the key to experiencing deeper connection in our communication? According to Alan Alda , it starts with acceptance — of others and ourselves. "Connecting, communicating, and clarity," Alda explains, "they're all based on hearing what the other person is really saying; letting the person be real; accepting them.” As an acclaimed actor, writer, director, and author of If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Fac...
Oct 08, 2024•20 min
Being present in the moment and staying open to whatever unfolds. We all want to lead lives and careers full of joy and fulfillment. Maggie Baird certainly has, and the key, she says, is to stay open to new possibilities and “let your passion lead.” Baird is an accomplished actress, improv teacher at the Groundlings Theater, mother to music sensations Billie Eilish and Phineas, and founder of Support and Feed , a nonprofit addressing food equity and the climate crisis. Through it all, she has em...
Oct 01, 2024•20 min
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...
Sep 26, 2024•21 min
Know your audience and tailor the message for them. In high-stakes communication, every word counts. For Jen Psaki , that means knowing who she’s talking to — so she knows just what to say. As the former White House Press Secretary and current host of Inside with Jen Psaki on MSNBC, Psaki has discovered that communication isn’t about “saying the most words or saying them the loudest,” but about knowing your audience well enough to tailor the message just for them. “You need to think about how yo...
Sep 24, 2024•22 min
Why organizational strategy can be both top-down and bottom-up. As Professor Jesper Sørensen sees it, a winning strategy is the result of conversations, not commands, and that 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 ...
Sep 17, 2024•26 min
What it takes to develop as a leader. Great leaders and great communicators aren't born, they're made. That's why John Hennessy and Tina Seelig , directors of Stanford University’s Knight-Hennessy Scholars , are working to create the great storytellers of tomorrow, today. "We decided that there was a leadership void, and that was a driving motivation to do this," says Hennessy, former Stanford president and current Alphabet chairman. The program, which he co-founded in 2016 with Stanford alum an...
Sep 10, 2024•21 min
“Acts of trust are the bedrock on which relationships are formed.” There’s a lot in the world to make us cynical about other people and their motives and intentions. But by “trusting loudly,” Professor Jamil Zaki believes we can renew our faith in one another. Zaki is a professor of psychology at Stanford, director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience lab, and author of several books, including his most recent, Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness . While many people feel sus...
Sep 03, 2024•27 min
Artificial intelligence can now do a lot of things. But if you’re worried about it taking your place as a communicator, Russ Altman says you need to question why you’re communicating in the first place. Altman is a professor of bioengineering, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and host of Stanford Engineering’s podcast, The Future of Everything . According to him, advancing technology isn’t a threat to human creativity and connection, but a too...
Aug 27, 2024•23 min
As a designer, Scott Doorley is interested in how humans create the world around them. It’s a conversation, he says, that starts with the question: What kind of world do we want? Doorley is the creative director of the Stanford d.school and co-author of the book, Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future . In designing everything from a device to an app to a building, “People get excited about what it can do,” he says, “but what should it do? What do we want? What's the desirab...
Aug 20, 2024•26 min•Season 5Ep. 156
Navigators know the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. In charting a course through communication, Susan Rice says the best route is often the most direct. Throughout her career at the forefront of American diplomacy and foreign policy, Rice has been no stranger to high-stakes situations that hinge on clear and candid communication. As she says, “I'm very direct. I don't believe in playing games, going around people, and being passive-aggressive. I shoot straight.” Rice gra...
Aug 13, 2024•18 min•Season 5Ep. 155
"In a leadership role, so much more of communication is about connecting with people, establishing shared humanity, motivating them, inspiring them, sometimes challenging them." On August 1, 2024, Jonathan D. Levin , the tenth dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business, was appointed the President of Stanford University. In this Think Fast, Talk Smart episode from 2022, Levin reflects on the importance of communication as a leader. There is a balance, he says, in being direct with your dialogu...
Aug 06, 2024•17 min•Season 5Ep. 154
Tara VanDerveer has more wins than any other coach in NCAA basketball history. But as she says, motivating and leading teams isn’t about barking orders. Communication, she says, “It starts, number one, with listening.” For VanDerveer, leadership isn’t about a power dynamic, but a collaboration between her and her team. “I can't do it by myself and they can't do it by themselves. But as a team, we can,” she says. From seeking opinions from her assistant coaches to connecting with players about li...
Jul 30, 2024•28 min•Season 5Ep. 153
“Anything is fixable,” say Frances Frei and Anne Morriss . As cohosts of the Fixable podcast, they’re typically the ones doing the fixing, but on this special episode, they turn to Matt Abrahams for tips on what to do when communication breaks down. Both Frei and her wife Morriss are public speakers; the former, a professor at Harvard Business School, the latter, a CEO and best-selling author. As they discuss with Matt Abrahams, perfectionism and self-doubt can often creep in, both during prepar...
Jul 23, 2024•37 min•Season 5Ep. 152
Whether winning over a hiring manager or winning new business, career success often hinges on how we communicate. That’s why Andrew Seaman is on a mission to help people find the words that work — to get work. Seaman is the senior managing editor for jobs and career development at LinkedIn, and as the creator and host of the Get Hired podcast and newsletter, he helps millions hone communication skills to land the jobs they want. According to him, getting opportunities isn’t just about experience...
Jul 16, 2024•28 min•Season 5Ep. 151
Sometimes, what’s communicated to us can have a big impact on how we communicate to others. This episode explores some of the best communication advice — from experts and Think Fast, Talk Smart listeners around the world. As teachers of Strategic Communication, lecturers Shawon Jackson and Matt Abrahams have plenty of advice on how to be a better communicator. But in this 150th episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , the two don’t just discuss the communication strategies they share with students in...
Jul 09, 2024•22 min•Season 5Ep. 150
“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 speechwriter and author Dan Pink . “I think it’s because we are slightly over-indexed on risk. We overstate the risk in many circumstances.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , strategic communications lecturer Matt Abrahams sits down with Pink to hear how we can take more risks and how leaders can inspire ...
Jul 02, 2024•28 min•Season 5Ep. 149
In our personal and professional lives, some conversations are harder than others. To navigate the difficulties of discussing what matters most, Professor Irv Grousbeck says we need the right balance of conviction and compassion. At both Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford School of Medicine, Grousbeck teaches courses on managing difficult conversations. He equips students with skills to be direct while being respectful, to be strong while being warm, and to resist any urge to beat...
Jun 25, 2024•28 min•Season 5Ep. 148
Innovation and disruption aren’t just for organizations. According to Whitney Johnson , we can find new possibilities for personal and professional growth — by disrupting ourselves. As an executive coach, author, and podcaster, Johnson teaches people how to level up their lives and careers through the power of personal disruption. Her book, Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work , reveals how shaking things up enables us to break free of the constraints we might not...
Jun 18, 2024•25 min•Season 5Ep. 147
Stress can get in the way of our communication with others. To manage our stress, psychologist Jenny Taitz says, we first need to adjust the conversations that we have with ourselves. Taitz is an assistant clinical professor in psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of several books, including Stress Resets: How to Soothe Your Body and Mind in Minutes . According to her, much of the stress we experience is self-created through negative thought patterns and harsh ...
Jun 11, 2024•20 min•Season 5Ep. 146
Whether we realize it or not, we negotiate everyday. But when we approach these situations as a win-or-lose battle, we’re already showing resistance, and setting ourselves up for difficulty. But what if you reframed the whole idea, to think of a negotiation not as a fight, but as a problem-solving exercise involving emotions? In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Matt Abrahams speaks with Stanford GSB Professor Emeritus Margaret Neale about what she has learned in her decades of researchin...
Jun 04, 2024•16 min•Season 5Ep. 145
Many of us would rank getting along with colleagues as an important aspect of work, but, as Amy Gallo explains, relationships devoid of disagreement can actually be less productive. “While our natural human instinct is to avoid conflict, I believe that conflicts are not only an inevitable part of interacting with other humans, but they're a necessary part.” Gallo is a workplace expert, host of HBR’s Women at Work podcast, and the author of Getting Along: How to Work With Anyone . Across her work...
May 28, 2024•22 min•Season 5Ep. 144
In choosing who to date, what job to pursue, or how to invest our money, most people are just looking for a reason to move forward. But according to Professor Ilya Strebulaev , we should be looking for something else: a reason to bail. "The smartest venture capitalists ask a very different question from what most of us ask," says Strebulaev. Instead of asking “‘Why should we invest?’, venture capitalists approach every new opportunity with [the] question: Why should we not proceed?” This contrar...
May 21, 2024•21 min•Season 5Ep. 143
A special live edition from the Me2We event at Stanford, where strategic communications expert and podcast host Matt Abrahams joins four distinguished faculty members from Stanford Graduate School of Business: Michelle Gelfand explores the dynamics of cross-cultural organizational behavior. Brian Lowery discusses the societal implications of racial perceptions. Deborah Gruenfeld reveals insights into power dynamics and personal presence. Zakary Tormala delves into the nuances of persuasive langu...
May 14, 2024•35 min•Season 5Ep. 142
