Making Conversation

Seven Essential Elements of Meaningful Communication

By: Fred Dust

Narrated by: Fred Dust

A former senior partner and global managing director at the legendary design firm IDEO shows how to design conversations and meetings that are creative and impactful. Conversations are one of the most fundamental means of communicating we have as humans.

At their best, conversations are unconstrained, authentic and open - two or more people sharing thoughts and ideas in a way that bridges our individual experiences, achieves a common goal. At their worst, they foster misunderstanding, frustration and obscure our real intentions.

How often do you walk away from a conversation feeling really heard? That it moved the people in it forward in some important way? You’re not alone. In his practice as a designer, Fred Dust began to approach conversations differently. After years of trying to broker communication between colleagues and clients, he came to believe there had to a way to design the art of conversation itself with intention and purpose, but still artful and playful.

Making Conversation codifies what he learned and outlines the four elements essential to successful exchanges: commitment, creative listening, clarity, and context. Taken together, these four elements form a set of resources anyone can use to be more deliberate and purposeful in making conversations work.

©2020 Fred Dust (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

A Timely Guide for Tuning Our Conversations

I'd like to think I can hold a conversation fairly well...but thanks to this book, I'm walking away with a greater appreciation for what we each can do and expect of each other to make our conversations more worthwhile. Considering how much more time we're spending talking remotely in 2020 - (hello Zoom meetings) - or not talking long enough with people who have very differing points of view (hello political divide), the fact that this book helps us consider the quality of our shared time and interest when we are in conversation is just so needed! On the practical end, there are ritual-like suggestions any of us could try on to shake up how our talks flow. (Imagine some may be harder than others, but still within reach...) What I particularly enjoyed in this book was the balance of personal anecdotes and research from different corners of the world that punctuated points being made. A good book for anyone who values time and feels as motivated to design better conversations. (And, PS. I can't think about Active Listening in quite the same way now...)

Transformative Ideas Delivered In Author's Voice

Love this book and, more importantly, find it has literally transformed they way I think about conversations. Fred Dust deftly moves from the big ideas right down to the practical case studies of examples I found readily applicable to my daily life. Particularly useful in helping one approach 'difficult conversations' with a new mindset that is liberating.

Loved hearing the book read by the author because it really breathed life into the examples. Just like having a great conversation with a close friend.

Power

The foundation to his approach on conversations is treating them as a Marxist power struggle. What a wretched way to approach conversations.

Narration was very listenable, however there were often jarring voice tempo changes clearly resulting from diffrent recording sessions.