To build great teams you need to understand people. One of your core skills as a leader should be the ability to have effective conversations with your team, the rest of your organisation, and your customers. Unfortunately the ability to have an effective conversation is often seen as an innate skill that cannot be improved — and I see people making the same easily fixed mistakes again and again. This session will help you get the most from your conversations. We’ll demonstrate common mistakes, and introduce you to simple proven techniques used by user researchers, therapists, salespeople, and others. You’ll come away with a new way to look at conversations, along with practices you can use everywhere from retrospectives to interviewing job candidates.

1. How to talk to
Earthlings
Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/q80_outsider/6291506844/

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Parker_Follett_(1868-1933).jpg
“Management is the art of getting
things done through people”
— Mary Parker Follett

5. 1-1

6. Not listening

7. SHUT UP

8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Christopher_Macsurak_Fran_Lebowitz.jpg
– Fran Lebowitz
“The opposite of talking isn't listening.
The opposite of talking is waiting”

9. STAY
QUIET

10. Not hearing what was said

11. Can you tell me
more about … ?

12. – Arthur Bloch
“Every clarification
breeds new questions”

13. Asking about the future

14. https://www.flickr.com/photos/svenstorm/4452323687/sizes/o/

15. Ask for stories

16. Leading questions

17. Ask open
questions

18. Being disrespectful

19. Be polite

20. Don’t be scary

21. Remember
your body
language

22. Trusting your memory

23. Write up
your notes

24. Insights vs.
Observations

25. http://memegenerator.net/instance/54379154

26. STALK
before you
TALK
before you
SELL
before you
BUILD

30. Do those served grow
as persons? Do they,
while being served,
become healthier,
wiser, freer, more
autonomous, more
likely themselves to
become servants?
— Robert K. Greenleaf

32. Shut up.
Stay quiet.
Reflect back.
Ask for Stories.
Insights vs Observations.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/q80_outsider/6291506844/

33. Thanks!
Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
adrianh@quietstars.com
bit.ly/leanuxnews
https://www.flickr.com/photos/q80_outsider/6291506844/