Good Read
The Art of Conscious Conversations: Transforming How We Talk, Listen, and Interact
Discover a foundation for establishing genuine, enduring, and productive connections and give up the bad mental patterns that ruin projects and derail conversations.
We live in conversations like fish live in water—we’re in them all the time, so we don’t think about them much. As a result, we often find ourselves stuck in cyclical patterns of unproductive behaviors. We listen half-heartedly, react emotionally, and respond habitually, like we're on autopilot.
This book is a helpful manual for pondering deeply on discussions so that we can avoid the usual mistakes that make our relationships and professional endeavors fail. Chuck Wisner identifies four universal types of conversations and offers specific advice on maximizing the effectiveness of each:
Storytelling — Investigate the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and others
Collaborative — Explore the way our stories and other people’s stories interact
Creative — See new possibilities and discover unforeseen solutions
Commitment — Make promises we know we can keep
These discussions progress in a logical order: as we become more aware of our own and other people's stories, we become better listeners and collaborators, which expands the scope of our thinking and leads to thoughtful agreements.
Our conversations, whether they occur at home, at work, or in public, can either bring us pleasure and help us succeed, or they can bring us grief and lead us to failure. Wisner demonstrates how we can establish a connection right away and maintain a constructive and fruitful dialogue throughout any endeavor.