If I understood you, would I have this look on my face? : my adventures in the art and science of relating and communicating
/ Alan Alda
- New York : Random House , 2017
- 213 p. ; 25 cm
Includes index
Relating: it's the cake -- Theater games with engineers -- The heart and head of communication -- The mirror exercise -- Observation games -- Making it clear and vivid -- Reading minds: Helen Riess and Matt Lerner -- Teams -- Total listening starts with where they are -- Listening, from the boardroom to the bedroom -- Training doctors to have more empathy -- My life as a lab rat -- Working alone on building empathy -- Dark empathy -- Reading the mind of the reader -- Teaching and the flame challenge -- Emotion makes it memorable -- Story and the brain -- Commonality -- Jargon and the curse of knowledge -- The improvisation of daily life.
Alan Alda tells the fascinating story of his quest to learn how to communicate better, and to teach others to do the same. With his trademark humor and candor, he explores how to develop empathy as the key factor. If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? is the warm, witty, and informative chronicle of how Alda found inspiration in everything from cutting-edge science to classic acting methods. His search began when he was host of PBS's Scientific American Frontiers, where he interviewed thousands of scientists and developed a knack for helping them communicate complex ideas in ways a wide audience could understand - and Alda wondered if those techniques held a clue to better communication for the rest of us. In his wry and wise voice, Alda reflects on moments of miscommunication in his own life, when an absence of understanding resulted in problems both big and small. He guides us through his discoveries, showing how communication can be improved through learning to relate to the other person: listening with our eyes, looking for clues in another's face, using the power of a compelling story, avoiding jargon, and reading another person so well that you become "in sync" with them, and know what they are thinking and feeling - especially when you're talking about the hard stuff. Drawing on improvisation training, theater, and storytelling techniques from a life of acting, and with insights from recent scientific studies, Alda describes ways we can build empathy, nurture our innate mind-reading abilities, and improve the way we relate and talk with others.
English.
9780812989144
Interpersonal communication Interpersonal relations