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 challenges. How do I send my message clearly when put on the spot? How do I write emails to get my point across? How can I easily convey complex information? How do I manage my reputation? Whether you’re giving a toast or presenting in a meeting, communication is critical to success in business and in life.Think Fast, Talk Smart provides the tools, techniques, and best practices to help you communicate more effectively.
Rock and Role: How Assigning Gender to Inanimate Objects Influences Us
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 Martin is interested in how anthropomorphizing technology can benefit the humans who use it, she also notes how “problematic stereotypes” could be perpetuated as a result.In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Martin joins host Matt Abrahams to discuss how our ideas about gender inform the way we relate to the world and how we can leverage the latest research to promote greater diversity, equity, and inclusion. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The Power of No: How Boundaries Help Us Live More Empowered Lives
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 she calls “empowered refusal,” a way of saying no that’s rooted in one’s identity, values, priorities, and preferences. “An empowered no,” she says, “is about us, not a rejection of the other person.”In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Patrick and host Matt Abrahams explore how to use the power of no, how to move from strategy forming to strategy implementation, and how to resist momentary pleasures that distract us from our larger goals.More Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessapatrick23/ https://uh.edu/news-events/stories/2023/june-2023/05012023-patrick-empowered-no.php For a full transcript of this episode visit: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/think-fast-talk-smart-podcast See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
LEADing ideas: Research-Backed Tips and Tools from Four Stanford Professors
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 program answer the three questions traditionally posed to guests.To hear more from each of these Stanford GSB professors, find their episodes on the podcast.Strategic Success: How to Communicate Your GameplanIn this episode, Jesper Sørensen explores why organizational strategy can be both top-down and bottom-up.From Dreaming to Doing: How We Set and Achieve GoalsIn this episode, we speak with Szu-chi Huang about an essential ingredient of human behavior: motivation. Leading From Home: How to Create the Right Environment for CommunicationIn this podcast episode, Jonathan Levav discusses the importance of not just knowing what your audience needs to hear, but how they need to hear it.Words Matter: How to Make Your Communication InclusiveIn this episode, Sarah Soule shares research that shows how subtle word choice can invite inclusion, or can reinforce harmful stereotypes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
All the Feels: The Personal and Professional Power of Emotional Awareness
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 highly abstract data. But we'll do that with feelings.”In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Teoh and host Matt Abrahams discuss how developing greater emotional awareness can help us achieve more agency and empathy in our personal and professional lives.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
No Regrets: How to Take Risks in Your Communication, Relationships, and Career
“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 leaders can inspire others by focusing on the why instead of the how. “There's almost incontrovertible evidence that sense of purpose is the most cost effective performance enhancer that organizations have,” Pink says. They also discuss the power in taking breaks, which Pink considers part of performance, not a deviation from it. “What we know from many domains is that professionals take breaks. It's not that amateurs take breaks and the professionals don't, it's the exact opposite.” Pink’s latest book is The Power of Regret, How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward.Think Fast, Talk Smart is a podcast produced by Stanford Graduate School of Business. Each episode provides concrete, easy-to-implement tools and techniques to help you hone and enhance your communication skills.Show NotesDan Pinkhttps://hbr.org/2014/11/cooks-make-tastier-food-when-they-can-see-their-customersFeelings First: How Emotion Shapes Our Communication, Decisions, and Experiences (episode with Baba Shiv)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Um, like, so: How filler words can create more connected, effective communication
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: the podcast, Fridland sits down with host and strategic communications lecturer Matt Abrahams to discuss how and when we use "you know","so", and other filler words. For example, Fridland says, the way we use “um” varies greatly from how and we might use “uh.” And the use of “like,” while deplored by many, actually serves a linguistic function and can provide context and background for a listener.She and Matt also discuss the social linguistic function of vocal fry and whether emojis have a place in business communication. Fridland is a professor of sociolinguistics at the University of Nevada. She's an expert on the relationship between language and society and recently released a new book, Like Literally Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Best of: Brains Love Stories – How Leveraging Neuroscience Can Capture People’s Emotions
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 very used to this and we sort of think these are fundamental, but of course, this is just what we’ve inherited from a long road of evolution … It turns out you can push information in the brain in other ways.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Listen, Listen, Listen: How to Build Deep Connections
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 demonstrating that you're interested in someone and that you like them,” she says.In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Greenwald and host Matt Abrahams discuss relationship-building tactics like small talk, active listening, communication blindspots, and more.Think Fast, Talk Smart is a podcast produced by Stanford Graduate School of Business. Each episode provides concrete, easy-to-implement tools and techniques to help you hone and enhance your communication skills.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Best of: Leading From Home – How to Create the Right Environment for Communication
*This episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart recently 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 environment for creativity, innovation, and collaboration.It’s not just maintaining a company culture, it’s about establishing what that culture is online, Levav says. “How can you encourage those serendipitous conversations that tend to happen in person?”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Know What You’re Saying: How Communicating Tests Our Understanding
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 not enough to transmit a message. As he and Matt Abrahams discuss on this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, we have to be skilled translators, adept at decoding our ideas and recoding them in ways our audience will understand.LaBlanc is the host of unSILOed, a podcast produced by University.fm. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Building Habits: The Key to Lasting Behavior Change
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 of emotion.”As Fogg discusses with host Matt Abrahams in this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, bringing our behavior in line with our goals is easier than we think — we just have to know the emotional levers to pull.Think Fast, Talk Smart is a podcast produced by Stanford Graduate School of Business. Each episode provides concrete, easy-to-implement tools and techniques to help you hone and enhance your communication skills.More ResourcesBJ Fogg at StanfordTiny HabitsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Best of – Don't Get Lost in Translation
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 "Best of" 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 English to non-native speakers through Stanford Continuing Studies. Romeo is a professor at Waseda University in Japan. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Quick Thinks: How Others Define Us
“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 new book, Selfless: The Social Creation of You. Lowery argues that there is no essential “self” — our selves are creations of those we interact with — exploring what that means for who we can be and who we allow others to be. He also shares research on how asking deeply personal questions can be a tool for deepening relationships. Brian Lowery is the co-director of the Stanford Institute on Race and the host of the podcast, Know What You See. Resources:https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/brian-lowerySelfless: The Social Creation of "You" by Brian LoweryKnow What You See PodcastSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
You Need a Manifesto: How to Communicate Your Convictions
“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.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
It’s Not About You: Why Effective Communicators Put Others First
It’s easy to feel like the star of the show when giving a presentation. But according to communication guru Nancy Duarte, you’re not the hero of this story.For Duarte, founder and CEO of world-renowned communication consulting firm Duarte Inc, effective communication is built on the foundation of empathy, which means considering your audience first and foremost. “All the attention is on us. But in reality, the audience is the one,” she says. “If they don’t leave with your idea adopted, your idea is going to die.”How can presenters use empathy to put their audience at center stage? As Duarte discusses with host Matt Abrahams in this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, it’s about seeking to understand before you start speaking.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.