Harvard Business Review on Effective Communication

by Fernando Bartolomé

With topics that include how to run a successful meeting, change frontline employees' behavior, and build effective management teams, this indispensable volume offers useful tips for all businesspeople. The Harvard Business Review Paperback Series is designed to bring today's managers and professionals the fundamental information they need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world. Here are the landmark ideas that have established the Harvard Business Review as required reading for ambitious businesspeople in organizations around the globe. Articles include: Listening to People by Ralph G. Nichols and Leonard A. Stevens; How to Run a Meeting by Anthony Jay; Creative Meetings Through Power Sharing by George M. Prince; Nobody Trusts the Boss Completely--Now What? by Fernando Bartolome; Skilled Incompetence by Chris Argyris; The Hidden Messages Managers Send by Michael B. McCaskey; Reaching and Changing Frontline Employees by T.J. Larkin and Sandar Larkin; and How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight by Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, Jean L. Kahwajy, and L.J. Bourgeois, III.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Communication, Management, Research, Leadership, Self Help

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Fernando Bartolomé is a professor of management at the Instituto de Empresa Business School in Madrid and an adjunct professor of organizational behavior at Insead in Fontainebleau, France.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an avid reader of HBR I find compendiums such as these helpful. Communication is a topic in which everyone can improve. I found the Ralph Nichols article interesting. Ralph Nichols is an early pioneer in listening studies in business going back to the 1940's. The problems faced at that time (Poor attention, listening not to comprehend but to wait for your turn to speak) are the same problems we face today. Skilled competence and Reaching Frontline employees were also good reads, but the listening article drew my interest for being in a sales role 90% of my job is listening.

[Trevor Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for those who are looking to become more efficient in communicating in business.

Takeaways:
1. Change is not top down, it starts at the front lines
2. Meeting structure most efficient when Information —> Discussion —> Decision
3. More information leads to less interpersonal feud and consensus goals can lead to lengthy discussions and nothing being done (things hurting in end)

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in the 1970s, everything seems written for now. Each chapter is a separate practical topic. How do I get my employees to take me seriously? How do I run a meeting so we get things done? How do I get people to communicate to each other? How can you tell when there's trouble brewing in the group managing a project? What can we do about it?

This is not a businessman's self help book. It's more like a book based on case studies, and I prefer that for its neutrality. By that, I mean that it doesn't advocate a new philosophy or technique, but evaluates what works. Each chapter appears to be an article published on its own by a different author, and then collected in this book. I found it very useful and noted lots of ideas to use in difficult meetings.

[T.F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really useful book dealing with some of the critical issues of the workplace. After a long time I found a book that had some really good practical insights on dealing with work situations. I like the first chapter about listening especially interesting. Some of the other articles that I really found value were related to managing meetings avoiding inter personal conflicts, on organizational communications and on undesirable skills. Overall really a worthy read.