Matt Abrahams is a communication expert, professor, author, and host of the award-winning podcast “Think Fast, Talk Smart.” A professor at Stanford University, Matt teaches strategic communication and virtual presenting, earning Stanford’s prestigious Alumni Teaching Award for his work. A sought-after speaker and coach, Matt has worked with clients delivering TED Talks, IPO road shows, and Nobel Prize speeches. But that’s not all…Matt also advises the UN Secretary General’s communication office! The author of two bestselling books, Matt’s book “Think Faster, Talk Smarter” offers practical tools for spontaneous speaking, while “Speaking Up without Freaking Out” is focused on helping people manage public speaking anxiety.

During this episode of "Experts Unleashed," Atlassian's Dom Price chats with Matt about the importance of intentional communication, why structure is critical to communicating successfully, and how practicing being more spontaneous can help you build lifelong communication skills. Matt shares how to best measure how effective you are communicating, what some of the top communication structures are (and how to use them), and why improv and Toastmasters are great ways to learn how to communicate better. Matt’s extensive experience working as an expert communicator shines during this episode as he breaks down the complexities of communication into easy-to-consume bits.

They also discuss the "My User Manual" Play from Atlassian's Team Playbook. It's an exercise designed to help leaders share with their teams and teammates HOW they work. Think of it like this: when you buy a TV, it comes with a User Manual. But when you hire a human, there's no such helpful guidance. Matt takes us through his User Manual and shares his preferred way of communicating (pro-tip…talk like a human and avoid jargon monoxide with Matt!).

More about Experts Unleashed:

The world feels full of thought leadership and frameworks, when we’re actually hungry for lived experience, science, and pragmatic insights. Experts Unleashed seeks out amazing minds from their specialty fields and brings them to you, to unleash their wisdom in a way that will help you put it into action. Each episode aims to educate, provoke, inspire, and then activate… to give you the confidence to try someone new.

In this episode:

My User Manual Play: https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/my-user-manual

More about Matt Abrahams: https://mattabrahams.com/

Vocal Justice Charity: https://www.vocaljustice.org/