The Conversations that Bring Us Closer

Difficult conversations are a constant throughout life, at work, at home, and in the world. We never outgrow them, or get a promotion that saves us from them, or meet a person who’s so perfect for us we never have to have them.

But difficult conversations, if we engage in them successfully, are the mark of a healthy relationship. In fact, the success and survival of any relationship, business or personal, depends on the ability of those involved to master difficult conversations. Difficult Conversations will help you ask for that raise, bring up issues with your spouse, understand your kids better, and get to the bottom of your feud with your neighbor.

We need to talk about racism. But, for white people and people of color alike, talking about it can feel like navigating through a minefield. In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo offers a handbook on how to have intelligent, productive, empathetic conversations about race.

Our guide discusses and extends Oluo’s ideas for how to tackle these conversations, comparing and contrasting her ideas on race with those of her contemporaries. We also examine the research underlying Oluo’s arguments. You’ll learn about the school-to-prison pipeline, why touching someone’s hair can be a racist act, and what you can do to fight racial injustice through both conversations and practical actions.

Vulnerability is all too often engineered out of today’s work cultures, in a bid to make employees more efficient and less susceptible to emotions—but brave leaders who have the courage to allow vulnerability are essential to thriving work cultures. Dare to Lead breaks down the four courage-building skills that make up brave leadership, so that you can create an organization that takes risk, uncertainty, and failure in stride. You’ll learn how to lead your team in engaging with vulnerability, acting with integrity, having more productive and honest conversations, and moving on quickly from failure—skills that will allow your work culture to meet today’s ever-increasing innovative and creative demands.

In How to Know a Person, New York Times columnist David Brooks argues that our ability to truly understand and connect with others is in crisis. As a result, we have problems like political polarization, mental health issues, and an epidemic of loneliness. Brooks contends that by rediscovering the lost art of “knowing” people, we can bridge divides, foster empathy, and rebuild our moral character.

This guide explores Brooks’s key insights on seeing people as individuals, appreciating diverse perspectives, and recognizing the inherent dignity of every person around you. You’ll learn practical strategies for deeper listening, asking meaningful questions, and cultivating crucial social skills. We’ll also compare his insights on social behavior and relationships to those of other experts and look at how Brooks’s advice aligns with research on understanding and communicating with each other.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is your ability to recognize your emotions, recognize the emotions of others, and use this awareness to develop your behavior and relationships. It’s also one of the defining characteristics of success in the workplace.

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 helps you build your EQ skills through the development of four key pillars: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. These pillars will help you process your emotions, manage your triggers, develop healthy habits, and succeed in your career path.

Difficult conversations are a constant throughout life, at work, at home, and in the world. We never outgrow them, or get a promotion that saves us from them, or meet a person who’s so perfect for us we never have to have them.

But difficult conversations, if we engage in them successfully, are the mark of a healthy relationship. In fact, the success and survival of any relationship, business or personal, depends on the ability of those involved to master difficult conversations. Difficult Conversations will help you ask for that raise, bring up issues with your spouse, understand your kids better, and get to the bottom of your feud with your neighbor.

Communicating effectively with others is a crucial skill—it’s how we build and maintain relationships, solve problems, and accomplish tasks. However, James Williams explains that good communication skills don’t come naturally—instead, they’re built up over time through intentional practice. In Communication Skills Training, Williams outlines the core abilities of effective communication and how to develop them so you can communicate well, build your charisma, and win people over.

In this guide, we’ve broken Williams’s advice down into two main sections. In Part 1, we’ll explore four core abilities of effective communication—active listening, establishing connections, controlling emotions, and being accurate and clear. We’ll outline why they’re important and how to develop them. In Part 2, we’ll discuss how to communicate effectively in three scenarios—handling misunderstandings, navigating feedback discussions, and giving public presentations.

Throughout the guide, we’ll supplement Williams’s recommendations with advice from other communication books like Thanks For the Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen and Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg.

Difficult conversations are a constant throughout life, at work, at home, and in the world. We never outgrow them, or get a promotion that saves us from them, or meet a person who’s so perfect for us we never have to have them.

But difficult conversations, if we engage in them successfully, are the mark of a healthy relationship. In fact, the success and survival of any relationship, business or personal, depends on the ability of those involved to master difficult conversations. Difficult Conversations will help you ask for that raise, bring up issues with your spouse, understand your kids better, and get to the bottom of your feud with your neighbor.

In How to Know a Person, New York Times columnist David Brooks argues that our ability to truly understand and connect with others is in crisis. As a result, we have problems like political polarization, mental health issues, and an epidemic of loneliness. Brooks contends that by rediscovering the lost art of “knowing” people, we can bridge divides, foster empathy, and rebuild our moral character.

This guide explores Brooks’s key insights on seeing people as individuals, appreciating diverse perspectives, and recognizing the inherent dignity of every person around you. You’ll learn practical strategies for deeper listening, asking meaningful questions, and cultivating crucial social skills. We’ll also compare his insights on social behavior and relationships to those of other experts and look at how Brooks’s advice aligns with research on understanding and communicating with each other.

Why and how do people justify their questionable actions and big mistakes? In Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson argue that we self-justify to relieve cognitive dissonance: discomfort triggered when we do things that don’t align with our other beliefs, actions, and values. They examine several unconscious processes we use to reduce the discomfort of cognitive dissonance, including self-justification, confirmation bias, and memory distortion. By learning about these psychological processes, you can unlock awareness of them in your own life and begin taking accountability for your actions.

In this guide, you’ll learn how contradictory thoughts and behaviors create painful dissonance. We’ll also discuss how self-justification, confirmation bias, and memory distortion help us relieve dissonance. Finally, we’ll discuss how the authors suggest we can break the cycle of self-justification and hold ourselves accountable for our uncomfortable actions. In our commentary, we’ll discuss healthier strategies you can use to deal with dissonance and explore some of the neurological processes that drive self-justifying behavior.

Do you want to cultivate a healthy relationship with your child? Do you wish you had the tools to understand them better? In The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read, Philippa Perry offers guidance for strengthening your bonds with your child and raising an emotionally secure individual. She argues that you can improve your parent-child relationship no matter your child’s age by examining how your parents’ style of parenting impacts your own, listening to your child, and meeting them with respect and understanding.

In this guide, we’ll discuss Perry’s advice for fostering a strong, loving parent-child relationship. Additionally, we’ll explore various ways to positively influence your child’s behavior, including the way they treat themselves and the way they learn to resolve conflicts. In our commentary, we’ll examine parenting advice from other authors and look deeper into some of the psychological principles underpinning Perry’s ideas.