"Alan Alda, the award-winning actor, tells us of his quest to learn how to communicate better, and to teach others to do the same. With his trademark humor and candor, he explores how to develop empathy as the key factor. His search began when he was host of PBS's Scientific American Frontiers, where he interviewed scientists and developed a knack for helping them communicate complex ideas in ways a wide audience could understand. Alda reflects on moments of miscommunication in his own life, when an absence of understanding resulted in problems both big and small. He shows how communication can be improved through learning to relate to the other person: listening with our eyes, looking for clues in another's face, using the power of a compelling story, avoiding jargon, and reading another person so well that you become "in sync" with them. Drawing on improvisation training, theater, and storytelling techniques from a life of acting, Alda describes ways we can build empathy, nurture our innate mind-reading abilities, and improve the way we relate and talk with others. Exploring empathy-boosting games and exercises, this is a guide that can be used by all of us, with our friends, lovers, and families, with our doctors, in business settings, and beyond. Alan Alda played Hawkeye Pierce on the classic television series M*A*S*H, and his many films include Crimes and Misdemeanors, Everyone Says I Love You, Manhattan Murder Mystery, and Bridge of Spies. He is the author of two previous books, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I've Learned, and Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself."--Provided by publisher.

Book cover is printed with a design resembling staining on the edges. 2018-02

Relating : it's the cake -- Theater games with engineers -- The heart and head of communication -- The mirror exercise -- Observation games -- Making it clear and vivid -- Reading minds : Helen Riess and Matt Lerner -- Teams -- Total listening starts with where they are -- Listening, from the boardroom to the bedroom -- Training doctors to have more empathy -- My life as a lab rat -- Working alone on building empathy -- Dark empathy -- Reading the mind of the reader -- Teaching and the flame challenge -- Emotion makes it memorable -- Story and the brain -- Commonality -- Jargon and the curse of knowledge -- The improvisation of daily life.