4 levels of communication: how to make better small talk
Small talk is not a waste of time.
In a world where we are constantly meeting new people as we jump on to new projects, it is vital that we know how to build those relationships right from the start.
Daniel Burka from GV (the venture capital arm of Google) says that design is all about relationships. He elaborates by explaining that “some of the best design work I’ve ever done was drinking coffee or beers with engineers, marketing people, and business development hustlers. And I wholeheartedly mean design work.”
What Daniel has really touched in that sentence, is the nature of design in business. Design is a collaborative process that relies on relationships to get to the heart of a problem.
I heard a talk recently at a Toastmasters meetup in South West London, where a lady spoke about the 4 levels of conversation, and how people (at least in the UK) are used to engaging with strangers and forming relationships. Here’s an overview of what the talk was about – how to build relationships, and the 4 levels of conversation.
The real art of conversation is not only knowing what to say at the right time, but knowing what not to say at the wrong time.
The 4 levels of conversation
You may or may not be aware of it, but in every conversation we have, there are 4 distinct levels.
- Small Talk
