Harvard-Professorin: „Führungskräfte reden im Schnitt zu viel“

Harvard Professor Alison Wood Brooks reveals that skilled conversation is a challenging coordination game. It involves listening, formulating responses, recognizing and understanding others' emotions and intentions, and deciding when to change the topic. Conversations, even between well-acquainted people, rarely resemble meticulously rehearsed movie dialogues.

This is partly because we rarely receive specific feedback on our conversational abilities. We often lack awareness of why a conversation succeeded or failed, and we rarely know how the conversation might have unfolded differently. Brooks addresses this by developing a framework called "TALK," which stands for Topics, Asking, Levity, and Kindness. These four principles guide the design of engaging conversations.

The key aspects of TALK are selecting relevant topics, asking more questions, maintaining a light and engaging conversation style, and focusing on the conversation partner. Despite the apparent difficulty in mastering such crucial communication skills, Brooks argues that anyone can learn to lead productive conversations. "TALK" is the title of her bestselling book, now available in Germany under the title "Small Talk, Deep Talk."

Brooks emphasizes that good conversation skills can be learned, and the crucial factor is how we behave during conversations. The framework provides a systematic approach to steering conversations in a desirable direction, ensuring that both parties remain engaged and interested in the discussion.