Previous
Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Supercommunicators, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Direct and Indirect Communication
Data and Anecdotes
Joint Decision-Making
Matching vs. Mimicking Emotion
Identity
Summary
Analysis
In 2014, the U.S. Department of Defense convenes a research group to figure out how soldiers can communicate better. The group speaks with Felix Sigala, a seasoned FBI negotiator who trains junior agents and consults on difficult negotiations such as hostage situations. When Felix meets with the group, one researcher asks him to explain his theory of communication. Instead, Felix asks about the researchers’ pasts and families and shares anecdotes about his own.
Author Charles Duhigg opens Supercommunicators with a story about Felix Sigala, an FBI negotiator, not with expository prose about what communication is or a data-dump about psychology research on communication. In this way, Duhigg hints at lessons he has learned about communication that he’ll later share in the book. First, communication works best when all parties involved are interested, not bored. Second, personal stories often grab people’s interest and make them emotionally invested. Third, communication is sometimes more persuasive and engaging when it is indirect, not blatant.
Active
Themes
After 45 minutes, a psychology professor says she’s had a great time but asks how the conversation is relevant to the research. Felix asks the professor, who shared earlier that she was a single parent, to tell him what advice she would give to a person divorcing. When she starts talking about the end of her marriage, Felix gently interrupts and explains that she was about to share about her divorce, in front of coworkers, after 45 minutes’ conversation—because he paid attention to what the researchers said, posed questions that elicited personal information, and responded with emotional information about himself. He concludes that these tactics are a learnable skill.
Sigala leads the researchers to share sensitive personal information—in fact, he arguably manipulates them—to prove a few points. These points include that emotional reciprocity and autonomy are important in communication. Sigala shares personal information as well as requesting it, demonstrating reciprocity, and he asks for personal information rather than demanding it, showing respect for the researchers’ ability to make their own decisions. Moreover, Sigala demonstrates what he can do with communication rather than just explaining it, indirectly illustrating the importance of personal experience and indirect argumentation in persuading people.
Active
Themes
The author, Charles Duhigg, suggests that most people know someone who can cheer them up, talk them through problems, and connect with their sadness or happiness. Supercommunicators reveals why people like this are so good at talking to others, using research from the past 20 years on communication and connection to explain how to talk to people well.
Active
Themes
Duhigg shares his own motives for writing a book about communication. He once struggled as a project manager because he tried to solve conflict among his coworkers without addressing their emotions. He also had petty fights with his wife when she didn’t respond how he wanted to his emotions, and he ignored his kids sometimes. Duhigg suggests that most people stumble in communication at work or at home like he did. Supercommunicators describes why people stumble in communication and how they can improve.
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The book makes three major arguments. First, talk can be divided into types: the pragmatic type, which Duhigg calls What’s This Really About?; the emotional, How Do We Feel?; and the identity- or society-focused, Who Are We?. A single conversation can contain multiple types of talk, but communication often stumbles if one participant in a conversation is trying to have a different type of talk than the other. Second, people should try to grasp their conversation partners’ worldviews and share their own. Third, excellent communication is a learnable skill.
Active
Themes
