Better Conversations Quotes

“I’ve had to learn organizational techniques—and become the master of my Google calendar with reminders all day long for important things, as well as simple tasks.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“You want the teacher to reflect while you facilitate the conversation without saying too much.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“replace the word help with collaborate.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“We shouldn’t wait until we have the perfect words when have something important to say.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“parents should praise the process—their children’s effort, strategy, perseverance, or improvement. Then the children will be willing to take on challenges and will know how to stick with things—even the hard ones.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“it is less effective to say to someone, “You’re a kind teacher” (describing an attribute that we judge them to have) than it is to say, “Three students have told me that they can tell you really care about them.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“Nearly every organization or work team we’ve spent time with . . . astonishingly undercommunicates the genuinely positive, appreciative, and admiring experiences of its members. This . . . is a terrible deprivation of the vitality of the work setting. (pp.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“Connection is why we’re here. We are hardwired to connect with others, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it, there is suffering. —Brené Brown (2012, p. 8)”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“Why, What If, and How.” Berger shows that these three questions stand at the heart of many game-changing innovations, including the invention of the microwave oven, Gatorade, Netflix, windshield wipers, the World Wide Web, and many other innovations.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“Open questions usually invite longer, detailed, knowledge, opinion, or feeling answers.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“When you are curious and ask good questions, you communicaterespect, build relationships, and you usually learn something important.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“When we are curious, we see a conversation as a living interaction that we co-construct with our partner, not a means to tell someone something or an opportunity to control somebody.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“we shouldn’t ask questions to which we think we already know the answer. Rather, we should ask questions because we authentically want to hear what our partner has to say.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“I am working on suspending the assumption that I am right, listening authentically to what the other person is saying and really respecting the other person knowing that what they are saying is valuable to them and they deserve to have me hear them . . . I am just really trying to become a better communicator.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“become aware of how our pride and our desire to be right can block our ability to learn.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“we embrace the opportunity to find out we are wrong simply because we would rather learn than win.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“A dialogical conversation is something we co-construct with others so everyone in the conversation can learn and grow.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“If we had taken time at the start to confirm everyone’s understanding of what we were doing, and if everyone had had time to get a clearer understanding of our project, we might have been able to have a meaningful and helpful dialogue rather than a conversation”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“There are at least five strategies we can employ to do this: (1) consider others’ thoughts and feelings, (2) clarify the meaning of words and concepts, (3) provide contextual information others need so they can understand what we are sharing, (4) identify our false assumptions, and (5) use stories and analogies to help ideas come to life.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“I focused on respecting her opinions and asking questions that would help her talk about her assumptions and what she was thinking about this student in particular. That,” Jennifer said, “worked lovely.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“She wanted to embrace dialogue by making sure her own thoughts and words didn’t get in the way.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“They weren’t going through the motions—they really cared about other people and they communicated that they respected them. They believed, whether they realized it or not, that conversations should be life-giving.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“meaning in conversations should be mutually constructed and”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“space for us to construct together instead of me controlling the direction of the conversation. I think thoughtful questions that open dialogue will help.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“It’s not our differences that divide us. It’s our judgments about each other that do.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“we don’t share our perceptions in a way that diminishes others. When”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“Conversational trust develops, they say, “when people feel comfortable and safe enough to share their perceptions regarding one another’s perceptions without repercussions.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“judgment destroys equality and creates unsafe environments for conversations.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“whenever I talk with Don, and I have talked with him hundreds of times over the past two decades, he makes me feel like I am doing him a favor to have the conversation. Don listens, encourages, and asks great questions.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected

“When you’re in a conversation, your brain has to do three things at once: Stay in the content of the conversation, read the person or people you are talking with, and read yourself.”
― Jim Knight, Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected