Talk Lean

Alan Palmer was educated at Oxford and INSEAD and has spent most of his career working for advertising agencies and management consultancies in London and Paris. He is a senior figure at Interactifs, who provide coaching and training to a variety of major clients from financial services to the car industry, from business schools to manufacturing companies. The company is based in France but operates in some 20 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America. Alan runs the UK operation of the business, which incorporates English-speaking divisions of Interactifs France's clients as well as customers unique to the UK.

• Preface ixAcknowledgements xiPart One: Introduction 11 What the book is about and who it’s for 32 All different . . . and all alike 15Part Two: Straight to the point in less than a minute: opening your meetings and conversations 233 The benefits of straightforward, straightaway 254 Begin at the end 395 And how are you feeling about announcing this objective? 57Part Three: Talking lean DURING the meeting: the keys to productivity 736 Why meetings run rough: the grit in the engine 757 Don’t just listen with your ears! 858 Responding: first principles 999 The three paths: 1 “HIM/HER” and 2 “ME” 11910 The three paths: 3 “US” 13511 Dealing with the non-verbal 14912 “What do you think?” 163The Interactifs Discipline: Schematics 177Interactifs Training Programmes 181About the author 185Index 189

"Talk Lean should be mandatory for any negotiator, manager, employee.... Everyone." (Valeurs et Management, April 2014) "For sales people in particular, meetings are an important part of working life. To get the most out of them, welcome to Talk Lean...." (Sales Initiative, March 2014) "This straightforward book helps you meet a middle ground in communicating frankly, courteously and effectively." (Talk Business, January 2014) "There is plenty of practical advice here and, as you'd expect in a book on this subject, the tone is concise and precise.... Widespread adoption of these practices would, in theory, mean an end to those long, unproductive meetings. Reason enough to recommend it." (Economia, December 2013) "Talk Lean deserves to be the definitive text of its kind for years to come." (Elite Business, December 2013)