Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

By Matt Abrahams, Think Fast Talk SmartBusiness Education Careers Language Learning

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Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques episodes

November 08, 202271. Strategy Success: How to Communicate Your Gameplan
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.
Connect:
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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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25 min
October 25, 202270. Ideas Fuel Innovation: Why Your First Ideas Aren’t Always the Best
What’s the secret to coming up with good ideas? For Jeremy Utley, it’s about generating as many as possible.
The director of executive education at the Stanford d.school, Utley says, “very few problems we face in business or in life have a single right answer.” All ideas — the good, the bad, and the ugly — are “a necessary input to an innovation process,” and an essential step in getting to solutions that will actually work.
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Utley and host Matt Abrahams explore how we can focus less on finding the “right” answer and open ourselves up to more innovative ideas.
Connect:
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Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn
********
Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.
Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smart
Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be.
22 min
October 11, 202269. Feeling Nervous? How Anxiety Can Fuel Better Communication
Stress, anxiety, nervousness — when these feelings inevitably arise, lecturer Kelly McGonigal says it’s not about making them go away, but using them to your advantage.
“What I have come to value about anxiety,” says McGonigal, “is it’s a sign that I care.” As she explains, feelings of stress alert us to things that matter to us and help us stay present in the moment — particularly useful, she says, when it comes to communication.
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, McGonigal and host Matt Abrahams discuss how to channel stress toward more effective communication and to a deeper connection to our own purpose and meaning.
Connect:
Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium
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Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website
Newsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.io
Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn
********
Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.
Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smart
Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be.
25 min
September 27, 202268. Directive vs. Dialogue: Communicating Better as a Leader
As the dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dean Jon Levin knows the importance of crafting the right message and sharing it in the right way. But, as he says, one of the biggest challenges for any leader is to know what to communicate, and how.
How do leaders strike the balance between being clear and directive, and as Levin says, “leaving space for people to form their own opinions, to discuss ideas, to debate”? He joins host and lecturer of strategic communications Matt Abrahams to discuss on this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart.
Connect:
Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium
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Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website
Newsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.io
Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn
********
Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.
Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smart
Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be.
18 min
September 13, 202267. What Is Normal? How Culture Affects Communication Styles
Why do we drive on only one side of the road? Why don’t we sing in libraries? Why wear a swimsuit?
For Professor Michele Gelfand, it all comes down to culture. As a cross-cultural psychologist, Gelfand is fascinated by social environments and their effects on human behavior, particularly, how strictly people adhere to social norms.
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Gelfand joins host and lecturer of strategic communications Matt Abrahams to explain why some cultures are “tight” and “have strict social norms,” while others are “loose,” with “more permissibility of behavior.”

Connect:
Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium
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Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website
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Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn

Episode Reference Links:
Threatening Language Can Be Contagious. This New Tool Tracks Its Spread
Why the Pandemic Slammed “Loose” Countries Like the U.S.
Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World
Mindset Quiz: How Tight or Loose Are You?
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Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.
Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smart
Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be.
20 min
August 30, 202266. Rethinks: Lessons from Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman to Help You Hack your Speaking Anxiety
“There’s no difference between the physiological response to something that you’re excited about and something that you’re nervous about or dreading,” says Andrew Huberman associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University.
In this “Best of” episode, we revisit one of our most popular interviews. In it, Huberman, from the wildly popular Huberman Lab Podcast, shares his research on the autonomic continuum, a spectrum between states of high alertness or fear all the way down to deep sleep, and shares how to use the system to your advantage. “If people can conceptualize that the anxiety or stress response is the same as the excitement response, they feel different,” Huberman says.

Connect:
Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium
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Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website
Newsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.io
Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn
********
Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.
Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smart
Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be.
30 min
August 16, 202265. Ties That Bind: Why Remote and Hybrid Teams Need the Right Connection
“We need to be much more adaptive in the way we think about hybrid work,” says Michael Arena. “Experiment, experiment, experiment.”
Innovation relies on teams connecting in very specific ways. But are those connections possible in a hybrid work reality? Glenn Carroll, a professor of management at Stanford GSB, and Michael Arena, a faculty member of Penn's Master's in Organizational Dynamics program, have been looking for the answer — studying how team interactions have changed since millions of workers went remote.
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, they discuss how teams can optimize their communications to keep innovating in a post-pandemic world.
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 >>> FasterSmarter.io
Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn
********
Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.
Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smart
Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be.
21 min
August 02, 202264. Rethinks: Techniques for Managing Your Reputation
How others perceive us in person and via social media can impact our careers and social standing. But we can build the reputation we want through conscious communication.
On this episode, strategic communication lecturers Matt Abrahams and Allison Kluger share techniques on effectively improving and managing your reputation.

Connect:
Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium
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Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website
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Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn

Show Notes:
Allison Kluger
“How Tylenol Made a Comeback” NYTimes
Allison Kluger: "Telling your Story Can Lead to Success and Opportunity"
Allison Kluger: Last Lecture Series: “If Not You, Then Who”
********
Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.
Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smart
Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be.
19 min
July 18, 202263. Cheap Talk: What Economics Has to Say About Communication
Your words — are they credible? Or are they what Paul Oyer calls “cheap talk?”
According to professor of economics Paul Oyer, how our words align with our actions isn’t just a matter of communication, but a matter of economics too. Economic concepts hold in all areas of life, which Oyer’s research has explored in everything from Uber driving to online dating.
“Economics is everywhere,” Oyer says. “It's an incredibly powerful lens to analyze almost anything in the real world.”
Join Matt Abrahams, lecturer in strategic communication, as he sits down with experts from across campus to discuss public speaking anxiety, speaking off the cuff, nailing a Q&A, and more.

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 >>> FasterSmarter.io
Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn
********
Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.
Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smart
Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be.
18 min
July 05, 202262. Rethinks: Summer Learning Series, How Humor Can Be a Secret Weapon in Communication
In the kickoff to our Summer Learning Series, we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes. This interview features Stanford GSB faculty members Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas and gives specific insights into how humor can transform your communication at home and at work. At the time of this episode, their book Humor, Seriously was just set to launch.

Connect:
Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium
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Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website
Newsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.io
Think Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube
Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn
********
Thank you to our sponsors. These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.
Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smart
Join our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be.
31 min