Robert Poynton
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Like jazz
Who’s playing at your jazz club? Conversation is a musical thing, like jazz or birdsong: more ‘call and response’ than question and answer. It enables us to travel great distances, but the joy is in the journey not the destination. We are meant to sing and dance along the way, jamming with others, riffing off… More →
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Salience
Let go of self-judgement and follow your curiosity Genuine interest on our part is appreciated by all true conversation partners. Our sense of salience is a super-power. (Salience is the quality of being particularly noticeable or important.) We all have this super-power. I believe it arises from our sub-conscious when something we’re just encountering, rhymes… More →
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Experimentation and exploration
What has surprised you recently? That’s not a good way to live. That’s a way to live in stagnation and complacency. Great conversation is rooted in experimentation and exploration. It’s an art of discovery, and play. Great conversation is about composition: Listening to many people or ideas, and create something new. That’s common for us… More →
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Do Conversation
Book Do Conversation by Robert Poynton, 2024 — Why do some conversations flow, while others are stilted and awkward? Can we make difficult conversations easier? Conversation is about more than communication. It’s how we connect with each other and make sense of the world – it’s an essential part of being human. And something we’re naturally very… More →