150: Pulitzer Prize Winner Charles Duhigg | How To Be a Supercommunicator

Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and the author of The Power of Habit, which spent over three years on New York Times bestseller lists. His second book, Smarter Faster Better, was a bestseller, as is his most recent book Supercommunicators.

A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School, Charles has been a frequent contributor to This American Life, NPR, The Colbert Report, PBS’s NewsHour, and Frontline.

Charles currently writes for The New Yorker magazine.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• One of the skills that Charles most wants to teach his kids is how to ask questions, and specifically deep questions that get at peoples’ values, beliefs, or experiences.
• Rather than ask someone, “Where do you practice law?” we can ask, “Did you always want to be an attorney?”
• Nick Epley plays a game with strangers of trying to get people to talk about their hopes and dreams within three questions. He usually gets there in two questions (What do you do? Did you always want to do that?).
• We often hesitate to ask deep questions, when in reality people love to answer deep questions.
• When Charles speaks to large groups, he has people share with their neighbor the last time they cried in front of someone. People predict they’ll hate the activity, but then they do the activity and love it.
• Supercommunicators don’t have superpowers. They’re just a little more thoughtful about communication.
• Supercommunicators ask deep questions, they show people that they want to connect, and they’re aware of the different types of conversations such as practical, emotional or social conversations.

Follow Charles:

Twitter: https://x.com/cduhigg

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesduhigg/

Website: https://www.charlesduhigg.com/

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