“Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell – is another great read – he summarises it as: “What we should know about the people we don’t know”.
Gladwell tells a number of stories of how because of pre-conceived ideas, our judgements are suspect. He illustrates how we find it so difficult to detect a lie, read a face or judge a stranger’s motives. How come senior judges are less able to detect guilt than a computer programme? Why were the Italian public and courts so certain that Amanda Knox was guilty of murder?
Many of you have to deliver presentations to international or stranger audiences. We all know about the need to be sensitive to personal and national characteristics let alone professional bias but do we really understand how biased we are in just about every decision we make?
We recommend this book. It’s a good read and will give you a better understanding of how to talk to strangers.
Posted by Barry Graham on Wednesday, November 6th, 2019 in Features › News ›
Tags: empathising with others, presenting to strangers, reading people, talking, talking to strangers