The first minute starts when you start talking about the work topic. Why is the first minute important? In the coming chapters, you’ll learn how to create a great first minute no matter what you want to talk about at work. When you apply this to all your work conversations, it will become a natural part of how you convey information, make requests, and engage in all other types of daily work communication. CHAPTER 2: FRAMING And so we improvise. Hang on, my earbuds are not connecting, and so forth. The performance of technological error does two things. First, it tames the error. Rather than allowing it to frustrate or undermine the speaker or listener, calling it out helps corral it. You might not be able to get your phone to work the way you’d hoped, but at least you can avoid letting that failure poison the entire conversation. And second, in so doing, the performance opens the door to a new kind of phatic greeting. More importantly, if an organization enters into any sort of legal situation, minutes serve as an official record proving due diligence, ethics, and bylaw compliance. Who takes meeting minutes? When you’re writing meeting notes, summarize . You should document as much information as possible, but don’t write everything verbatim. It’s not necessary to record everything that was said during the meeting notes. You also might have difficulty keeping up if you try to write the entire conversation word-for-word. Simplify and clarify what happened during the meeting. 5

It’s a helpful tool to be clear when you start a conversation, and it’s worth a read just to learn that framework alone. It’s particularly useful for dealing with people who are all action-focussed and don’t do small talk. This book is a result of more than 20,000 conversations in both business and technical jobs. Chris Fenning has trained individuals and teams around the world in these techniques. He has worked with organizations from start-ups to Fortune 50 and FTSE 100 companies. These methods work for them all. When we start communicating, our audience’s brains must work to understand the context of the words. They try to work out why we are talking to them and what they need to do with the information. If these things aren’t clear in the first few sentences, their minds create their own version of the facts. This leads to many problems, from wasted time to incorrect assumptions and high-cost mistakes. Small Message BoardTypically found in classrooms and offices to visually notify staff and students that If you are reading this and thinking it’s too late for you—you’ve already made a bad first impression, and there’s no point trying to fix it—don’t despair! You may have had some less than ideal conversations at work, but you can turn it around and become a role model for clear communication.Meeting minutes are the written record of a meeting or hearing. Minutes are usually structured and formal so that they can be shared after the meeting and serve as historical documents in the future. One question that came up a few times is ‘Why is the first minute of a conversation so important?’. Of course, you can find out the answer by reading the book — but if you need to know now, here is the answer while you wait for the book to arrive in the mail. What is the first minute? a crisis. When an emergency is initiated, TCU automatically raises speaker volume to its highest point to make sure messages are loud and clear. Research shows that poor first impressions can be reversed by a consistently strong performance. It takes eight good impressions to overturn a bad one. That may sound like a lot, but we have so many interactions at work that it doesn’t take long to have eight conversations. It is possible to make a great first impression with a colleague, only to ruin that impression when the conversation shifts to work. It doesn’t matter how much people like you; if you cannot deliver information in an organized way, they won’t respect you professionally. This is why the first minute of a conversation is so important.

The way we communicate at work influences how people think about us. It can impact the opportunities we get or don’t get, and the consequences can be significant. Poor communication skills are one of the top reasons why people don’t get promoted. This is especially true for people applying for leadership positions.

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It also didn’t talk much about other types of work conversation that are more about relationship building and connection. It felt very focussed on a specific type of working style, without giving any help on how to talk to other styles.