7 Resources to Help You Become a Better Communicator

There is nothing soft about the soft skill called communication. Most of us looked at the course CL in college and didn't give it much weight as other actual courses we were pursuing. To our own detriment of course later in life.

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle solved the communication code in the 4th century B.C.E. He came up with the three modes of persuasion to help us all become better communicators.

But fast forward to today and we still have messages falling flat, people raising more questions than answers when they speak. Most of us still struggle with clarity and conviction in our message delivery.

We should have paid attention to CL101!

Thankfully, there are plenty of resources to help us convince others of our position, argument, or vision.

The following resources will help you immensely in improving your communication. As they did to me.

Courses

1. Neil deGrasse Tyson Teaches Scientific Thinking and Communication . Learn to deliver your ideas in ways that engage, excite, and inspire. My favorite takes from the course:

One of the great challenges in this world is knowing enough about a subject to think you are right, but not enough about a subject to know you are wrong

And this,

It is not enough to be right, you have to be effective.

For example; climate change is a problem. Yes, you are right. But are you effective in addressing this problem so that even skeptics finally agree and get on board to save the planet?

2. Chriss Voss Teaches The Art of Negotiation . From a former FBI negotiator who calmed down angry kidnappers who wanted to hear nothing or else they spill blood. Get stronger communication skills, game-changing insights into human nature, and more of what you want out of life.

My favorite take:

When you start with "What I'm hearing is", it means you are more interested in your perspective than the other person’s perspective.

And this,

There are human nature rules that apply to everybody. It doesn’t matter whether you are a terrorist or a businessman.

Also this,

Life is a negotiation. If you want somebody to say Yes to anything, you are in a negotiation. You engage in negotiations all day long.

Narratives and Speeches

CAUTION: Watch the video only once. Then take the link and search for an online tool that converts YouTube into MP3. Then listen to that audio often. Let your brain focus on the words without being distracted by YouTube’s suggested related videos/ads or events in the video itself.

1. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie addresses Harvard's Class of 2018. She is undoubtedly the master of impactful delivery. Her strategy is storytelling and she is enviably good at it. In this particular speech, the audience laughed, clapped, and pensively let the message sink in.

2. Game Of Thrones Conquest And Rebellion : An Animated History of the Seven Kingdoms. Sorry if you are not into imaginative literature (which explains your communication predicaments), but try this one from Game of Thrones. It is the best piece of storytelling there is.

Books

1. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing : A gem from Harvard Business Review. The author argues, “You’ll lose a lot of time, money, and influence if you struggle with business writing”. And he is right.

2. How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler: So there is reading and there is Intelligent Reading. Which one have you been doing? Are you widely read or well-read? Are you informed or enlightened? These questions and others are discussed in this precious book.

Publications/Magazines

If you want to get stoned to death, go tell the Editors at The Economist that “everyone can write.” Just tell them that. There is a reason why they are in business, and that is better writing.?

So be sure to supplement your dense, long readings with weekly publications from the world’s best.

1. Financial Times
2. The Economist
3. The Wall Street Journal.?

I read the Economist every week. I once asked ChatGPT what is the writing style of The Economist because I like it. This is what Chat said:

That’s it for today. I hope these resources will be helpful to you as they have been to me. I keep coming back to them often. I have listened to the audio ones over 100x.

See you next Saturday.