← Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques
Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques
290. Quick Thinks: How to Have Better Conversations About Aging
00:22:11
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- [00:02]
A
Hi Matt here. We're excited to celebrate a milestone. Think Fast Talk Smart is approaching our 300th episode. To mark the occasion, I'll be hosting two free Ask Matt Anything events on June 3rd at 8am or 8pm Pacific. We'll run these on LinkedIn and YouTube, open to everyone around the globe. Before taking your questions, I'll share one of my favorite new communication structures for advancing ideas and arguments. Anyone joining can submit questions online during the event, and a few of our learning community members will have the opportunity to ask me their questions live on video. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of this live AMA on June 3rd. Be sure to sign up on LinkedIn, YouTube or faster smarter IO live. Now a word from one of our sponsors. Their support covers the cost of production of allowing us to bring you quality content free of charge. Language isn't just about words. It's about connection, opportunity and credibility. That's one reason I like Babbel. It focuses on real world communication, not just vocabulary drills, but practical conversations you can actually use, whether that's collaborating internationally, traveling for work, or building relationships across cultures. The lessons are Short A about 10 minutes, so they fit into busy schedules and they're designed by more than 200 language experts with tools for listening, speaking, reading and writing. It adapts to how you learn and helps you track real progress over time. For many of our listeners, whether you're strengthening English skills, adding another language for professional growth, or staying connected globally, it's a practical way to keep moving forward. Babel has over 25 million subscriptions sold worldwide over offers 14 languages and every course comes with a 14 day money back guarantee. If you've ever thought about learning another language, this is a perfect opportunity to start Right now. Babel is offering up to 60% off your subscription@babel.com TFTS that's Babbel B A B B E L.com TFTS for up to 60% off. Rules and restrictions apply. Be direct, clear and empathetic. Don't bubble wrap your communication My name is Matt Abrahams and I teach Strategic Communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast Talk Smart, the podcast. In my recent conversation with gerontologist Carrie Bernwright, she discussed so many useful approaches and skills that we could not capture them all in one episode. So here we provide more of Keri's insights into effective communication we can all benefit from, especially when we communicate with older people. In your book you have a quiz about your mindset towards aging and I, I feel many people have a declining mindset as you define it. Can you describe techniques and ways that, that we can flip that switch? Because I would much rather have a positive outlook and reap the benefits from perhaps doing so.
- [03:11]
B
Yes, your listeners can think of it. There are two options. One is the decline mindset, which is aptly, damn the damned.
- [03:19]
A
You're damned. Yeah.
- [03:21]
B
And that's the prevalent, that is the cultural norm. That's our default setting. Then there's the growth aging mindset. And if you put an E on it, could be game. But the growth aging mindset, in fact is backed by science. And I think that's what helps. This is not put your head in the sand thing. This is in fact knowing that I am going to be able to, for example, solve problems. And I want to give you an example of it, because if people know this, it's going to change the way that they think about their own problem solving. And problem solving is something that we need all life long. So I have a colleague who has passed, but he was at Harvard and his name is Gene Cohn. He had a PhD, MD. And he every week on Wednesdays, he would pick up his parents who were in their 90s from the train station. He would pick them up there, help them with their walkers into his car, drive them to his house where they would eat dinner, and then he would drive them home afterwards. One day, this brilliant son was late. His parents come up to the platform dumping snow. They're looking around, didn't have a cell phone with them. They look over, they see a pizza place. They carefully walk to the pizza place and they say, you know, we'd like to order a pizza and we'd like to have it delivered to our son's house. And when you do, we'd like to ride along with that pizza in the car.
- [04:51]
A
Oh, my goodness, what a great solution.
- [04:54]
B
He gets home, his parents are there with a hot dinner ready to go. But if we didn't understand that, we can come up with solutions that are not necessarily tech and we need to listen long enough. So people who are ahead of us, our job is to close our mouth for a minute and listen to the solutions that older people come up with so often they have great solutions that we wouldn't even come up with because we're not there yet.
- [05:22]
A
So look forward to and embrace the benefits that come with age. And I love that example. I think person and food delivery simultaneously. What a great idea. Thank you for that. You, in your book, provide several examples of how we can Cultivate joy in our life. The one that stood out the most to me and that I've enjoyed doing the most is Give of the Day. Can you explain this activity and share how it works?
- [05:47]
B
Yes. So because we know that giving really impacts the quality of our long lives, not to mention benefits others, we need to put it into practice in the same way that we do the physical strength kinds of things. So when people say, like, at what age should I start working on my joy span? I say, well, at what age do you think you should start on your cardiovascular health? As early as possible. And what makes your life better? Between the ages of 23 and 24 also are the same as of 93 and 94. So it's never too early and it's never too late. You can think of it almost like the way that you lift a weight and you're just doing a few every day, having that ability to look at your day and look for opportunities to give of yourself and that they're small. And so in the purpose literature, Stephen Cole at UCLA did a study, and he looked at the epigenetics of purpose or giving or contribution. And what he found is all variables held constant. Those who felt that they had a purpose had different gene expression in inflammation, in antiviral load, and it was so robust that they did a piece in the New York Times about it. And he was like, wow, so giving makes a difference. So give it a day is proactively. Take a moment, maybe when you're having coffee, maybe when you have a little bit of downtime, to think, what is something I can find today? And I'm going to give you some examples. You might look in your backyard and you see that there are lemons back there. Pick them, put them in a bag, go next door to your next door neighbor. That takes two seconds, whether they need lemons or not. And that helps with social connection. It's little tiny things. Mentoring, listening, sometimes just taking the time to think, I'm going to be fully present in my listening is the greatest give that we can give. But it doesn't just happen. And it's not just the big moments, it's the little moments, too. And when we think about giving, there is another part of the equation, because it does feel good to give. And we know about the giver's high. But if everybody's just giving, we don't have the other part, which is the receiving. And so something that we need to also learn is how to receive. And so when somebody offers like, oh, your wife is sick, Could I bring over dinner? We want to say, oh no, I got it. But instead to go, thank you to let. And people say, I'll be happy in longevity as long as I'm independent. And that for me is disconcerting because I know what the path looks like. So I like to think the reality is that we are interdependent. We never really were entirely independent. And we certainly, if we're holding our independence out as the goal, that's a little bit rougher than saying, I'm going to give and also receive.
- [08:50]
A
I love the activity and I really appreciate you calling it out. I know that in my father's life, my father has passed, but his ability to accept help, there was a fundamental transition when he began to accept it versus fighting it. And thank you for highlighting both sides of that equation. I want to turn our attention to communication. And part of it, I want to look at your communication, but also communication that some of us struggle with. Let's start. Start with not yours, but ours. And I'd love to get your advice. Many of us find ourselves needing to have very difficult conversations around aging, be it talking with people about stopping, driving cars, moving into assisted living, other situations. What advice and guidance do you have to help those of us who need to initiate those conversations or perhaps those who are receiving that conversation? What can we do to help make that better and less angst and conflict filled?
- [09:47]
B
I'm so glad you asked that because it is the question that comes up every day. And I will start with what not to do, because this is how it goes when you're a gerontologist. I now will pretend that you are the 90 year old father and I am your adult daughter at age 60. I'm concerned about something. And so what I do is I go in hot and I use the only model that I know, which is parenting. So this parenting, the parent or role reversal, it's not a good model because as adults, you as the father, you're not a child and you don't want to be parented. And the reality of aging is on the one hand, there is safety younger people are all about. This isn't safe. Safety, safety, safety. But it's not the whole picture. If you look on the other end, it's autonomy. Autonomy is one of the developmental drivers of growing older. And so by going in hot, that I, the adult daughter, am going to fix your problem. I'm taking away your autonomy. And you, of course, your natural reaction is, back off, I got this. I don't need any help because I've threatened you. So please, adult children, don't go in hot. And I can say this because I've done the same thing. My mom was in the hospital for months. I thought I was being so terrific. I got a hospital bed downstairs so she didn't have to go up the stairs, but I didn't ask her. So she got home and she was sick to see this hospital bed set up without her permission in her nice house. So I do it wrong a lot. And so that's the way I can say, so how do you do it right? Okay, let's say the conversation is around driving. Please throw out this thing as, when do I take away the keys? I mean, that right there is the biggest red flag. So everyone who's having that thought, please put it away. Step one, just like in all communication, as you well know, is to close your mouth and to listen. Because then the person is not going to feel like you're coming after their autonomy or their personhood or that you're thinking they're less than. So it would be a series, not just one. Not this big sit down little conversations where you go, you know, you're just talking maybe about driving, right? So you're not going after them in any way. And then maybe in my case with my mom, she was having more nicks on her car. So I didn't go in and go, mom, oh my gosh, this isn't safe. You know, you could kill someone. Look at that. I learned to shut my mouth and say, tell me more about how driving is feeling. And then she's looking for you to see if you're coming after her. Maybe that's enough for the conversation. One, maybe the next conversation. Are there parts to it that are getting hard or are you doing fine? And then sometimes we can say like, I really like mom, how we can talk about these things, because I know some other families, it's such contention. But look at us, we're just talking because I really value you and your decision making and your process. How did you, for example, like with your mom, what was that like? Right, so you're putting the person as they should be, as it's their life and they're ahead of you. And yes, you have concerns because you love them and you don't want rough things to happen. Another one is, this is a personal example. My mom's house has treacherous stairs and then the most hard marble or something at the bottom. And so my older sister said, mom's going to fall down the stairs and break her neck. You can't let her live here by herself. I can't believe you're a gerontologist and you let her do that. So I did hold that a bit. But then I did this advice of communication, of in a calm way having conversations with my mom, of saying, how do you feel on the stairs next time? What would happen if you would fall? Do you ever think about that? And my mom, because she doesn't have cognitive impairment, we can especially have, she said, you know something, Carrie? It is critically important for me to live in my house. And I want to tell you something. I probably ultimately will fall someday. And I know for sure I am going to die someday. So I want you to know in advance you didn't do anything wrong. If you find me bloody on the floor, you know that you enabled me to do what I wanted. It's not the case of everybody, but in that conversation, and I said, oh gosh, mom, you should talk to my sister and to my brother. So we had all these conversations because aging is a time of greater heterogeneity than any other time. Everybody's path is different, everybody's family is different. But the one result that's the same is it all ends the same way, is that you pass away. And that's not defeat. And it doesn't mean that you did it wrong. And so some of these families that I work with where they're just bubble wrapping the person into misery. I think maybe he didn't have the conversations.
- [15:05]
A
We'll be right back to finish our conversation. But first a quick word from one of our sponsors. Their support allows us to bring you this show free of charge when things get busy, and they always do. The real challenge is focus. Knowing where to spend your time so you actually make meaningful progress. But that's hard when you're trying to do everything yourself. That's where Upwork can help. Upwork is a one stop platform to find, hire and pay expert freelancers across areas like marketing, development, data and analytics and more. It gives you fast access to specialized talent so you can move quickly, fill key gaps and keep your work moving forward without getting stuck. You can browse profiles, review past work and get help scoping your project so you can hire with confidence and get started faster. And if speed really matters, you can connect with top tier talent and get matched in under six hours. It's a simple way to maintain momentum and focus on what matters most. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That's Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's upwork.com if you think about it. A lot of our communication challenges at work aren't about what we say. They're about what never gets clearly shared in the first place. Especially as teams grow and change. Processes live in people's heads. Explanations vary and over time that leads to confusion and inconsistency. This is exactly the problem today's sponsor, Scribe, was built to solve. Trusted by over 80,000 enterprises, including nearly half of the Fortune 500, Scribe is a workflow AI platform that captures what you're doing in real time and automatically turns it into clear, step by step guides. No recording, no manual write ups. So instead of adding one more task to your to do list, you can just do your work knowing it's being documented for others. As our team has grown, we've spent a lot of time walking people through onboarding tool transitions and cross team workflows. And the reality is we're often just too busy to stop and properly document all of it. With Scribe, you just turn on the extension, go through the process, and it builds the guide as you go. Something that might take hours or get pushed aside entirely now takes seconds. It also automatically redacts sensitive information so you can share confidently across teams, contractors and new hires. And anyone following along gets real time on screen guidance. So the message isn't just sent, it's actually understood and applied. And what I really appreciate is that Scribe doesn't just document your processes, it helps you improve them by showing you where things could be more consistent, more efficient, and easier to hand off. To book a personalized enterprise demo, visit Scribe. How thinkfast. That's S C R I B E dot H O W thinkfast. And now back to our conversation. What a powerful image. There so many things that you said there that I want to highlight. But first, these conversations aren't just with the person who might be older, it's also with the others who help take care of them. And you have to coordinate that. And I think a lot of your advice that you gave also applies to those conversations as well. Start with inquiry. Understand that the conversation might be about a bigger issue than you think. So it's not about the car keys, it's about autonomy and break the conversation down into pieces. It doesn't all have to happen at once and engage the other person in the conversation. Wonderful advice.
- [18:48]
B
And you will disagree. And that's the part to it too, is that. And so then you're trying to really think through to what extent is it their life. And we let people do what they want to do, even if we don't agree. Or then you put in the complicating. Sometimes there's cognitive impairment. And that really complicates things because would they have chosen a different path if they didn't have some cognitive change? So I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm saying the more you dig in, the more transparent, the more multiple conversations with other family members, the better.
- [19:22]
A
Absolutely, Absolutely. I want to talk very briefly about your approach to explaining these things. You have a wonderful way of helping people understand very complex and in some cases highly emotional issues. You use storytelling, you use exemplars, you use very vivid images. How do you think about making complex information more accessible to people? Because in a large part that's what you do. How do you think through that process? Because all of us in our lives have complex things we have to explain.
- [19:52]
B
I had not a diagnosis of ADHD when I was younger and needed it, but I just fumbled through thinking, why can I not pace very close attention? And so I have a shorter attention span. And I want to get to the point quickly. And so my hope was that I would write a book that get to the point, like what do I need to do here to make my life okay? Because I'm scared about growing older. So I just tried to write what I would want to read. So in that regard, I think maybe the ADHD helped me in some ways,
- [20:31]
A
you know, And I feel the same way in the books I write is get to the point. And I like how you use examples, you reinforce, you have catchy phrases, you use quotes, you give activities. All of those are ways to revisit the same point to really help. And I think all of us in the complexities that we have to describe and explain can benefit. Well, there you have it. So many useful tools and tips from Carrie Bernwright. Please be sure to check out our full episode with Carrie and give her book Joy Span a reading. Thank you for tuning in to this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast Talk Smart. The podcast this episode was produced by Kathryn Reed, Ryan Campos and me, Matt Abrahams. Our music is from Floyd Wonder. With special thanks to Podium podcast company. Please find us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe and rate us. Also follow us on LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram and check out fastersmarterio for deep dive videos, English language learning content and our newsletter. Please consider joining our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning community at fastersmarter IO Learning you'll find video lessons, learning quests, discussion boards, an AI coach, and book club opportunities. Again, that's FasterSmarter IO learning to become part of our Think Fast, Talk Smart learning community. Before we wrap up, I just want to say thank you for listening. It really means a lot to hear how people all over the world are using these ideas in their own lives. It inspires me and the whole team that brings you this show. If you want more episodes and resources, feel free to follow, subscribe, and explore past conversations. We're grateful for your support of Think Fast, Talk Smart.