Practical Communication Strategies for a Modern World
I’ve never really gotten into Twitter, but I’m addicted to Facebook. It started out as a fun way to keep in touch with friends and family I don’t see very often, but now it’s a giant time suck. So, I completely agree with the premise of Stop Talking, Start Communicating: Play Dumb, Be Boring, Blow Things Off, Lose Your Friends, and other Counterintuitive Secrets to Success in Business and Life.
Author Geoffrey Tumlin argues that our over reliance on quick, cheap, and easy communication means of staying connected has eroded our communication skills. He points out that tweets, Facebook status updates, and emails may be easy to send, but they’re not productive to creating a meaningful dialogue and can easily be misinterpreted. He advises that we spend less time typing and more time actually talking to the people in our lives, then provides instruction as to how to make these face to face conversations run more smoothly.
Tumlin’s tips seem nutty at first, but they really do make sense if you think about them. For example, he advises you to “lose your friends” (people you socialize with mostly out of obligation or old habits) because they take away from important relationships with the people that really do matter like your spouse and you kids.
On a similar note, he advises you to “be boring” to avoid creating unnecessary drama with people who are just looking for an excuse to get riled about something. If you stay calm, even tempered, and logical, you’ll get your point across and have a meaningful dialogue.
As someone who makes her living telling stories, I admit that it’s often hard for me to stay cool and collected during a conversation. My husband has the same dramatic temperament, so we’ve had many minor spats escalate into ridiculous arguments that make the idea of “boring” seem much more appealing.
Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher.
Photo credit: Amazon
