Alan Alda Book Review

Note: It was the book cover, a cartoonish Alan Alda with a bemused look on his face and the title of this book that caught my eye. I would have loved to reproduce it here, but the copyright laws and its clauses prevented me from doing so. The process to obtain permission appears to be quite involved. But this book is on New York Times best sellers list. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Three reasons made me picked this book, as I browsed through various title at my local Barnes & Noble. I frequent the store just to hang out and check out, how the rest of the humanity is faring. My reasons are:

(1) The whimsical title caught my attention
(2) I am fond of communication as a subject
(3) I like Alan Alda and his curious mind that leads him to look at interesting subjects.

The focus of the book is on how to get experts; scientists, doctors, engineers, psychologists, teachers, sales and others plain folks like me to communicate, so that we all are understood at a human level beyond jargons and expert-speak.

There are two quotes, one that highlights the problem in communication and the other throwing the limelight on effects on the quality of communications when we apply the solutions he recommends.

He sheds the light on the problem in communication at the very front of the book, with a quote from George Bernard Shaw, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

And the second quote is about the end goal and impact of any communication, when it is actually understood! Alan Alda says, “In the dance of communication, we move together with another person gracefully, pleasurably, sharing the pure animal joy of community.”

Alda has a serious passion for clarity in communication that actually advances understanding and knowledge. He also has an immense curiosity, as a lay person, about science because understanding science helps us understand how things work. He combines these two passions with the third one; a love for storytelling to make communication cogent and cohesive.

Throughout the book he draws attention to problems in the everyday communications that take place in classrooms, campuses and communities and in conference rooms and boardrooms by regaling us with anecdotes and stories about his experience in theatrical techniques used in improvising and with the research in neuroscience, cognitive psychology and lab experiments that show us how the heart and mind work, when communication is being fully understood versus when it is one-sided.

The central premise of this book is that, “Empathy is at the heart of communication,” and that empathy and rationality together are essential to produces the total deep listening experience for fully grasping the intent of the communication and for relating to a true human interaction.

Alda hates the idea of laundry list of tips, because they sound mechanistic. However, you can find plenty of tips, if you dig into his stories about how to attain total listening, increase empathy, combine reason and empathy for better presentation of ideas and stimulating innovation and to achieve successful and deeply satisfying communication.

I believe it is worth spending your time and money on this easy, entertaining and educative book. It certainly was worth for me. It is published by Random House and is available in hard cover and paperback.