All right cool so social science research has shown that people who engage in just a couple of minutes
of sports because they got as they start to meet each other have better outcomes.
And so when you start to actually meet somebody for the first time.
One good thing to do is to let them have the floor or speak first.
That will help them feel like they're coming into a safer environment.
So you want to let them have the floor.
Don't try to take control of the situation.
Instead just let them have the floor first.
Now when they're talking you want to be kind of like a satellite dish that is listening for agreeable
lines of communication.
And ones that are not agreeable for example if somebody says you know I sort of hate Facebook.
It's probably a good idea to avoid topics on social media whereas if they say something like Oh I'm
a huge fan of Elon Musk then they probably like to talk about entrepreneurship innovation.
So you want to follow that line of communication or just remembered about that person for later because
that could be good if you're following up with him on LinkedIn sending them articles etc..
So one easy way to get on the right side of somebody when you're in this small talk is to just be genuinely
positive about someone or something.
This way you can be yourself but you're also being positive.
So if you like an organization some event or you're proud of somebody in your network that's a really
good thing to talk about.
So you might want to check out the side by side on active listening and then take the quizzes so that
you can see how you can develop an ear for what lines of communication to follow and which ones to avoid.
And you'll also find a professor called Janice Naylor's research on the power of small talk in the download
section.