The Tao of Conversation: How to Talk About Things That Really Matter, in Ways That Encourage New Ideas, Deepen Intimacy, and Build Effective and Creative Working relationships [Paperback]

Michael Kahn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1995

We spent most of our waking hours talking - some of us even talk in our sleep - but the sad fact is that we hardly ever talk about anything significant. Even worse, the few conversations that do engage us often end up leaving us alienated and hurt. The reason for this? We're so accustomed to conversation as competition that a serious talk usually escalates into argument. THE TAO OF CONVERSATION shows you how to talk about what matters in ways that encourage new ideas, deepens intimacy, and builds effective and creative relationships - in the workplace, in the home, in an informal social setting. Engaging examples throughout the book make the skills it teaches vivid and accessible.

Product Details

• Paperback: 195 pages
• Publisher: New Harbinger Pubns Inc (December 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572240288
• ISBN-13: 978-1572240285
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #784,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What it Is, What it's About, June 16, 2001

By 

William J. Higginson - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tao of Conversation: How to Talk About Things That Really Matter, in Ways That Encourage New Ideas, Deepen Intimacy, and Build Effective and Creative Working relationships (Paperback)

I'm reading this book on my way to a conference, a conference where I will give the keynote address and conduct a panel and a workshop. While a lot of what Michael Kahn says seems like plain common sense, it's the putting it into practice that counts. I'll be trying to do just that.

If common sense were always put into practice, we'd call it "common action" instead of common sense. Kahn's examples and propositions are not things to be documented in APA style, but clues to how to act, if you want to have really good, useful conversations that affirm and support you and the person you're talking with. The book is not written for academics, but for people who talk with other people--and would like the results to be more interesting and useful, and less combative.

I'd like to note also, that though it was written before e-mail became a dominant mode of communication for many of us, this book's insights will work well in that environment, and especially on e-lists, where the flow of messages is much like a group conversation.

We've all had conversations that at least might have proceeded in the helpful, healthy ways Kahn suggests. This book is helping me to sort out why my better conversations were better, and learn to make the better ones happen more often. More than that, in less than 200 pages, who can ask?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should read this, October 24, 2005

By 

Christine "A thoughtful reader" (Los Altos, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tao of Conversation: How to Talk About Things That Really Matter, in Ways That Encourage New Ideas, Deepen Intimacy, and Build Effective and Creative Working relationships (Paperback)

If you want to explore the art of conversation - if you want to learn how to have a *real* conversation, this is the book for you. Most "conversations" are simply just one person engaging in a monologue while the other person waits for their turn to do their monologue. I think much of lonliness and misunderstandings in the world today could be eliminated if people actually practiced what is taught in this little book.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A new idea to me, March 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tao of Conversation: How to Talk About Things That Really Matter, in Ways That Encourage New Ideas, Deepen Intimacy, and Build Effective and Creative Working relationships (Paperback)

I came accross this book by accident. I'm not a scholar on conversation, so this book not only opened up a new idea to me, but has inspired me investigate more about the topic of conversation. I feel that because it opened my eyes to how I converse and has helped me at my business, it deserves four stars.