Description
Book SynopsisThis text outlines an approach to business communication by two Harvard-based educators, trainers and consultants. Kegan and Lahey show us how the way we talk in the workplace can be understood as seven different types of speaking, seven languages that reveal our attitudes and expectations.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction: What Do You Really Want . . . and What Will You Do to Keep from Getting It? 1
Part One: The Internal Languages: Building the New Machine 11
1 From the Language of Complaint to the Language of Commitment 13
2 From the Language of Blame to the Language of Personal Responsibility 33
3 From the Language of New Year’s Resolutions to the Language of Competing Commitments: Diagnosing the Immunity to Change 47
4 From the Language of Big Assumptions That Hold Us to the Language of Assumptions We Hold: Disturbing the Immunity to Change 67
Part Two: The Social Languages: Maintaining and Upgrading the Machine 89
5 From the Language of Prizes and Praising to the Language of Ongoing Regard 91
6 From the Language of Rules and Policies to the Language of Public Agreement 103
7 From the Language of Constructive Criticism to the Language of Deconstructive Criticism 121
Part Three: Carrying on the Work 147
8 Running the Internal Languages 149
9 Running the Social Languages 187
Epilogue: Toward the Transformation Highway: Transcending the Limits of the Information Age 229
The Authors 235
Index 237
