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Guide

Ten modules on working well with others, from how we listen to how we carry ourselves. Read them in order, or start with the one you need.

10modules
90topics
3levels

Listening

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Ten modules, ninety topics.
Module	Beginner	Intermediate	Advanced
Module 01Listening Most problems in communication begin with someone not understanding what someone else said.	Beginner 1.1.1Presence To truly listen to what someone is saying requires more than just being physically present: we must be mentally present as well. 1.1.2Interest Paying attention to what someone is saying is much easier if we are very interested in the topic being discussed. 1.1.3Openness Openness is a frame of mind where even if someone you don't trust tells you something you don't like, you will still consider if what they are saying is correct.	Intermediate 1.2.1Notetaking There are few things that indicate to someone that you are listening to them more than taking notes. 1.2.2Questions One of the best ways to let someone know you are listening to them is to ask good questions about the topic being discussed. 1.2.3Restating The ultimate goal of communication is to get someone to understand you.	Advanced 1.3.1Subtext The understanding of subtext is a key aspect of human communication, as people do not always say what they mean. 1.3.2Context When you listen to someone speak, you should consider the context in which they are speaking, as without taking context into account, it is possible to completely misinterpret what someone is saying. 1.3.3Inference When listening to someone, if ever you ask yourself, "What are they implying?"
Module 02Clarity Even the most thoughtful analysis or creative idea has little impact if people cannot understand it.	Beginner 2.1.1Takeaways Before you give a presentation, write a document, or compose an email, you must first identify the most important points that you want your audience to understand and remember. 2.1.2Simplicity Simplicity is critical whenever we need to communicate vast amounts of important, complex information quickly. 2.1.3Repetition When your goal is to help people remember information, repeating that information as often as possible is highly effective.	Intermediate 2.2.1Audience Communication is not the act of us broadcasting information and hoping that it is received. 2.2.2Delivery To make sure that your audience pays attention to what you are saying, you must have an engaging delivery. 2.2.3Duration A professional wishing to communicate effectively must work within the limits of people's attention span.	Advanced 2.3.1Examples If ever you are teaching a new concept to an audience, it is always useful to give examples. 2.3.2Comparisons One of the ways in which we help someone understand something they are not familiar with is to compare it to something that they are familiar with. 2.3.3Stories Few things are as entertaining and memorable as a good story.
Module 03Writing In the modern workplace, our writing often speaks for us before we have a chance to speak for ourselves.	Beginner 3.1.1Titles Deciding on the title of a document is one of the easiest, but also one of the most difficult, of all the tasks in written communication. 3.1.2Summaries When we write a document or email that is more than a few paragraphs long, our first few sentences should be a summary of what we wrote. 3.1.3Structure How a document's content is arranged is called the document's structure.	Intermediate 3.2.1Readability One of the ways people demonstrate their level of education is by using a wide vocabulary. 3.2.2Tone The tone of your writing conveys your attitude to your reader, but how your attitude is interpreted can be very different from what you might have intended. 3.2.3Sources A source is anything that someone else has written that has directly contributed to what you have written.	Advanced 3.3.1Editing After you have written the first draft of a document, it is now time to start the editing process. 3.3.2Proofreading Proofreading is the step between editing your final draft and publication, and is where we find and fix any typos, spelling mistakes, and grammatical errors. 3.3.3Publishing After you have edited your first draft into your final draft, and carefully proofread your work until it is free of errors, it is now time to publish what you wrote.
Module 04Visuals People tend to take in a well-designed visual much faster than a page of text.	Beginner 4.1.1Minimalism Minimalism is the practice of only using what you need. 4.1.2Color Using color correctly in your documents and presentations can help them look more polished and professional, but using colors incorrectly can do exactly the opposite. 4.1.3Typography Typography can be thought of as using typefaces and fonts to make our documents and presentations more attractive.	Intermediate 4.2.1Layout Whenever separate visual elements are placed together on the same page, they must be aligned to an invisible grid so that they look neat and organized. 4.2.2Tables Tables are the most common way business professionals display tabular data, which is to say, data that is best understood in terms of columns and rows. 4.2.3Charts Using charts to visualize data helps your audience quickly understand and interpret what that data means, greatly streamlining the communication of detailed information.	Advanced 4.3.1Diagrams Diagrams are useful whenever you want to simplify information into something that can easily be understood at a glance. 4.3.2Illustrations Adding illustrations to your documents and presentations can increase their visual appeal, help communicate important information, and add a touch of whimsy. 4.3.3Photos Photos are used to communicate both information and emotion.
Module 05Nonverbals Long before we say a word, we are already communicating.	Beginner 5.1.1Awareness Nonverbal communication is everything you communicate that is not the words you say. 5.1.2Impressions As we develop a deeper awareness and appreciation of nonverbal communication, the topic of first impressions suddenly becomes much more important. 5.1.3Anomalies Whenever we are attempting to read someone's body language, we must pay extremely close attention to whenever their body language changes - which is to say, whenever their body language deviates from their normal baseline state.	Intermediate 5.2.1Happiness When it comes to reading someone's body language, happiness tends to be one of the easiest emotions to recognize. 5.2.2Sadness Detecting the nonverbals of sadness is a critical aspect of being a supportive friend, family member, or coworker. 5.2.3Anger When someone is extremely angry, they will tend to yell, scream, and shout while making threatening gestures towards whoever or whatever is the source of their frustration.	Advanced 5.3.1Discomfort The nonverbal signs of happiness, sadness, and anger are usually relatively easy to notice once you start looking for them. 5.3.2Deception When people observe the nonverbals of discomfort, all too often, they assume that someone is lying. 5.3.3Rejection People can reject people, things, or ideas, and when they do, their nonverbals tend to make it clear.
Module 06Empathy Professional work is human work.	Beginner 6.1.1Emotions To communicate effectively, someone has to understand what you are trying to say, which, in theory, only requires that you say the right words to trigger the right understanding in whomever you are speaking to. 6.1.2Sensitivity We can think of emotional sensitivity as being able to detect how someone is feeling. 6.1.3Vulnerability For a group of people to become a team, the members of that team must learn to trust one another.	Intermediate 6.2.1Perspectives Someone's perspective is their personal interpretation of a situation, which is based primarily on their personal experiences, personal opinions, and personal beliefs. 6.2.2Consideration If we were to look for a single unified rule to help us live and work harmoniously with others, we would have to look no further than the Golden Rule, often phrased as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." 6.2.3Support People tend to do their best work when they feel supported by their colleagues, but it can be difficult to figure out the type of support someone wants, even if you can figure out the type of support someone needs.	Advanced 6.3.1Patience There are times when things are not moving as quickly as we would like them to, and we have to choose between pushing the people around us to go faster or being patient and allowing things to finish at their own pace. 6.3.2Tolerance Part of working in a team is that occasionally, we will be irritated by the behaviors of others. 6.3.3Acceptance It is important to remind ourselves that not all behavior that we find irritating is necessarily bad behavior, as it may just be a harmless quirk of someone's personality that we need to learn to accept.
Module 07De-escalation When people care about their work and face tight deadlines, disagreements are a natural part of working together.	Beginner 7.1.1Stress Work stress is an inevitable part of being a professional, but not all types of stress are bad. 7.1.2Conflict When people are under a lot of stress, discussions that start off as peaceful and respectful can quickly devolve into conflict. 7.1.3Composure If you find yourself in a conflict, the first step to de-escalation is to regain your composure.	Intermediate 7.2.1Facilitation A meeting facilitator's job is to guide a discussion towards a productive outcome. 7.2.2Intervention When conflict arises, the priority should be to end the conflict as quickly as possible. 7.2.3Mediation Once the participants in a conflict have had a moment to calm down, someone must now mediate a discussion where both sides have an opportunity to understand the other person's perspective.	Advanced 7.3.1Resolution Resolving a conflict can sometimes be made easier by establishing a timeline of events, figuring out the root cause that led to the conflict, and focusing on what can be done to address the underlying issues. 7.3.2Restoration Even after a conflict has been resolved, there can be lingering resentment among the participants. 7.3.3Reorganization If a clash of personalities is a constant source of conflict, then it may be necessary to reorganize who works with whom.
Module 08Assertiveness At work, it can be hard to find the right balance between staying quiet and speaking too forcefully.	Beginner 8.1.1Honesty Being honest at work builds trust with our colleagues, as people tend to trust honest people. 8.1.2Diplomacy Phrasing what we are thinking diplomatically enables us to be honest while maintaining productive working relationships with our colleagues. 8.1.3Directness If you have something to say, and want to be clearly understood in the shortest period of time, you should be direct.	Intermediate 8.2.1Timing The timing of when you say something depends on whether it is relevant to the topic currently being discussed; whether you would be interrupting someone else if you spoke; and whether you have enough time to say everything you need to say. 8.2.2Personalities When deciding how direct and diplomatic we should be when communicating assertively, we should carefully consider the personality of who we are speaking to. 8.2.3Objections If we are in a meeting, and we disagree with a decision that the group is making, as professionals we should assertively raise an objection.	Advanced 8.3.1Updates Working on a team often requires you to give updates on progress that is being made, typically called status updates. 8.3.2Debate Debating is a critical aspect of collaboration, as it is often through debate that the best solutions arise. 8.3.3Critique Critiquing the work of your colleagues is one of the most difficult tasks in all of professional communication.
Module 09Negotiation From moving project deadlines to sharing resources, many conversations at work are a form of negotiation.	Beginner 9.1.1Relationships Having a good professional relationship with the people you interact with ensures fluid communication, fosters mutual understanding, and makes the process of reaching mutually beneficial agreements much easier. 9.1.2Groundwork The success of a negotiation often depends on the amount of groundwork that was done beforehand. 9.1.3Detachment To remain objective, rational, and logical during a negotiation, we must learn to be emotionally detached from the outcome.	Intermediate 9.2.1Leverage Leverage refers to how much control we have over the outcome of a negotiation. 9.2.2Bargaining Bargaining is a process where offers and counteroffers are made until both parties reach an agreement. 9.2.3Persistence Seeing a deal through to its conclusion often requires persistence, especially as delays, obstacles, and disagreements extend the length of a negotiation to days, weeks, months, or even years.	Advanced 9.3.1Ultimatums When someone issues an ultimatum, they create a situation where there are only two options, and force the other side to choose. 9.3.2Compromise If a negotiation has gotten to the point where neither side is willing to make a deal, it may be time to compromise. 9.3.3Abandonment While the goal of negotiation is to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, sometimes this is not possible.
Module 10Conduct A professional reputation is rarely built on a single great presentation or a brilliant idea; it is built quietly, through everyday habits.	Beginner 10.1.1Appearance While there is no such thing as a universal professional appearance, each profession and organization tends to have established norms. 10.1.2Punctuality Arriving at work on time, showing up to meetings on time, and delivering work on time are all fundamental aspects of professional conduct. 10.1.3Etiquette Professional etiquette refers to a collection of behaviors that are expected in a professional work environment.	Intermediate 10.2.1Attitude Maintaining a positive attitude at work is an essential aspect of being a professional. 10.2.2Affability As professionals often need to interact with both colleagues and customers, it is important to be affable, such that people consider you friendly, approachable, and easy to talk to. 10.2.3Confidence As a professional, you should project confidence in order to signal that you can be trusted to get a job done well.	Advanced 10.3.1Jargon Professionals often use industry-specific jargon - meaning words and acronyms specific to their particular field of work - to help them communicate more quickly and clearly among other professionals in their field. 10.3.2Formality Professionals should communicate in a formal fashion, which means using respectful language with no chance whatsoever of causing offense. 10.3.3Deference To be respected as a professional, we should show respect to the people around us, as people will tend to treat us the way we treat others.