David W. Bennett

In a time when the world seems divided, what will help bring everyone back together? It starts with how we communicate with one another in our personal and business lives. Creating common ground connections combines people's existing skills of establishing common ground and "connecting" with others. Everyone uses these skills all the time. People know it results in more effective and understandable communication between people. But too often we don't consciously use these skills--they just happen. Why not use common ground connections all the time? Adapting people's personal communication in this way is something each of us can do right now. It starts with creating common ground connections with our immediate circle of friends and family and spreads to our work colleagues. This presentation is highly interactive giving participants a "feel" for how to create common ground connections. Based on the book: Creating Common Connections, Healing Divisiveness (Routledge, 2023).

This presentation is based on the presenter’s published book: Connect & Succeed: A Communication Style to Engage and Motivate Your Employees. The connect and succeed communication style provides managers with specific actions to follow in improving their communication. The three core actions are: 1) energetic listening, 2) targeted speaking, and 3) creating a common ground connections. The actions provide managers with a straightforward way to improve and enhance their current communication style with individuals and teams in order to increase productivity.