I will own a copy of this book someday. Being an entirely non-confrontational person, I can really benefit from advice about how to make conversations safe--both for me as a speaker and for whoever is listening to me. It really opened my eyes about how we often retreat from conversations by resorting either to silence or "violence" (aggressive words/gestures, talking over each other, etc.). I think the strategies the authors suggest are practical and logical, and I appreciate the emphasis on the fact that you can't change other people, so you must work on your own communication skills instead of focusing on the poor skills of others.

One of the great values of this book is how well it is written and organized. You can tell that the authors have gone to great lengths to put a name or label on all of their findings and ideas. So many books like this can be abstract, but this one is not. You finish this book with a list of very doable goals, instead of feeling like, "Well, that was neat. How do I start?" These authors are colleagues (or at least associates) of Stephen Covey, and the organization feels like a Stephen Covey book.

I can easily see that this would be an EXCELLENT resource for someone in the business world. The authors have worked with hundreds of corporate clients, and many of the examples in the book are business oriented. For someone like me, who's much more entrenched in home life than corporate life (corporate what?), I wish there had been a greater number of home-based communication examples. Otherwise, a fantastic resource!