Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

Master the art of thinking on your feet and turning unpredictability into powerful communication.

Being quick on your feet isn’t just a performance skill — it’s a communication necessity. And for Peter Sagal, longtime host of NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, it’s a craft he’s honed over more than two decades in front of a live audience. In this expanded conversation from our Spontaneous Speaking series, Sagal shares what it ...

When communicating with their employees, most firms have no idea who they’re talking to.

Good communication is about knowing your audience. But if your organization is only focused on knowing your customers, James Root says you're forgetting a whole other cohort: your employees.

Root is a senior partner at Bain & Company, Chair of Bain Futures, and author of The Archetype Effect, in which he reveals a simple but over...

Real connection means understanding your audience, staying true to yourself, and creating space for others.

How do you communicate who you are, what you stand for, and leave space for others to do the same? At the Stanford Seed Summit in Cape Town, South Africa, three GSB professors explored why real connection is built through authentic communication.

For Jesper Sørensen, authentic organizational communication means tal...

How to be a skilled conversationalist in work, love, and life.

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...

Understanding your audience's psychology is the key to crafting communication that resonates.

Persuading others isn't about magic spells or mind-reading tricks. According to Emily Falk, the real secret is simpler: know what your audience finds relevant, and you’ll be able to craft a message that resonates.

Falk is a professor of communication, psychology, and marketing at the University of Pennsylvania, Vice Dean of the ...

For your communication to be credible, you can’t just say it — you have to do it.

Want people to believe what you say? According to Richard Edelman, the words you choose only get you halfway there. To build real trust, he says, you have to practice what you preach.

“Action builds trust,” says Edelman. “If you don't do something, you can't talk about it.” As the president and CEO of Edelman, a leading global communication...

How to communicate clearly in any context, from newsrooms to the world stage.

All good communication, whether spoken or written, is built on the same foundation. In everything from police reporting for a newspaper to serving as spokesman for the Pope, Greg Burke has found the key: "Keep it as simple as possible."

Burke has worked as a journalist for Time Magazine and Fox News, as Director of Communications at IESE Busine...

How to turn doubt and suspicion into hopefulness and trust.

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: ...

Career growth starts with stepping outside your comfort zone.

Building a successful career isn’t about following a set path—it’s about knowing when to evolve and embracing change. Whitney Johnson believes that success comes from disrupting yourself—challenging routines, stepping into discomfort, and continuously evolving. “People think staying in their comfort zone is the safe choice,” she explains, “but real growth happens...

In the age of virtual communication, here’s how to ensure your messages convey what you mean.

Texts. Emails. Slacks. Zooms. We’re communicating in more ways than ever, but Andrew Brodsky has a word of warning: Your virtual communication might be sending messages you’re not aware of.

Brodsky is the author of PING: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication. And as a professor of management at the University of Texas ...

Career success takes a status boost, not a power grab.

How do you chart the career course you’ve always imagined? According to Alison Fragale, it’s about gaining influence through status, power, and ultimately, being “a likeable badass.”

As a research psychologist, professor, speaker, and author, Fragale is on a mission to help women take control of their careers. In her book Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success Th...

How to turn curiosity, clarity, and AI into your most powerful job search tools.

Job search isn’t just about landing your next role—it’s about understanding who you are and how you want to show up in the world. According to Andrew Seaman, Senior Managing Editor for Jobs and Career Development at LinkedIn, that process begins with curiosity, not certainty. “People assume they need to apply to dozens of jobs with a perfec...

Amidst constant change, clear communication is the key to navigating uncertainty.

How do you communicate with others when you’re confused yourself? For Rob Siegel, leadership isn’t about avoiding uncertainty, it’s about embracing the clarity that ambiguity can bring.

"What if ambiguity is the new normal?" asks Siegel, a venture investor and lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business. From rapidly evolving AI to rat...

How victim, villain, and helpless stories sabotage our most important conversations.

The hardest conversations aren’t just about what you say to the other person. According to Joseph Grenny, critical conversations begin with the stories that you tell yourself.

As a leading expert on business performance and communication, and a New York Times bestselling co-author of Crucial Conversations, Grenny explains that navigating...

Great strategy starts with a question—and a story worth believing in.

A good strategy isn’t just built—it’s told. For Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute and author of The Imagination Machine and Like: The Button That Changed the World, strategy and imagination are both deeply communicative processes, rooted in storytelling, curiosity, and the courage to reframe assumptions.
“A strategy is really j...

A live SXSW panel on how employee complaints illuminate the path to organizational innovation.

Wrong question: How can AI revolutionize productivity in my organization?

Right question: What do my employees hate most about their jobs?

For the Portland Trail Blazers, a winning game plan for AI implementation didn’t begin with a tech-first approach — it began with a talk-first one. “The whole concept was to talk about pa...

How to have the conversations that are most difficult — and most important.

Before you can have hard conversations with others, you need to have an honest conversation with yourself. That's the counterintuitive advice from Sheila Heen, who says our own internal narratives often derail our attempts at negotiation and conflict resolution.

"The first negotiation is actually a negotiation I have with myself about my own stor...

Stay sharp, sound confident, and speak with impact — even when you're put on the spot.

Communicating clearly is challenging enough when there’s time to prepare. But in most situations — whether in meetings, casual conversations, or high-stakes moments — we rarely have the luxury of scripting our words. We must think and speak in real time.
Spontaneous communication is a daily challenge, yet few of us receive formal t...

The power of creating the reputation you want to have.

Whether you know it or not, you have a brand. What that brand is, says Lorraine Lee, doesn’t happen by accident. “You can either form and create it, or you can let people define it for you.”

A teacher, content creator, speaker, and author of Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence and Catapult Your Career, Lee helps people improve their communication presenc...