Matt Abrahams is a communication expert, professor, author, and host of the award-winning podcast “Think Fast, Talk Smart.” A professor at Stanford University, Matt teaches strategic communication and virtual presenting, earning Stanford’s prestigious Alumni Teaching Award for his work. A sought-after speaker and coach, Matt has worked with clients delivering TED Talks, IPO road shows, and Nobel Prize speeches. But that’s not all…Matt also advises the UN Secretary General’s communication office! The author of two bestselling books, Matt’s book “Think Faster, Talk Smarter” offers practical tools for spontaneous speaking, while “Speaking Up without Freaking Out” is focused on helping people manage public speaking anxiety. During this episode of "Experts Unleashed," Atlassian's Dom Price chats with Matt about the importance of intentional communication, why structure is critical to communicating successfully, and how practicing being more spontaneous can help you build lifelong communication skills. Matt shares how to best measure how effective you are communicating, what some of the top communication structures are (and how to use them), and why improv and Toastmasters are great ways to learn how to communicate better. Matt’s extensive experience working as an expert communicator shines during this episode as he breaks down the complexities of communication into easy-to-consume bits. They also discuss the "My User Manual" Play from Atlassian's Team Playbook. It's an exercise designed to help leaders share with their teams and teammates HOW they work. Think of it like this: when you buy a TV, it comes with a User Manual. But when you hire a human, there's no such helpful guidance. Matt takes us through his User Manual and shares his preferred way of communicating (pro-tip…talk like a human and avoid jargon monoxide with Matt!). More about Experts Unleashed: The world feels full of thought leadership and frameworks, when we’re actually hungry for lived experience, science, and pragmatic insights. Experts Unleashed seeks out amazing minds from their specialty fields and brings them to you, to unleash their wisdom in a way that will help you put it into action. Each episode aims to educate, provoke, inspire, and then activate… to give you the confidence to try someone new. In this episode: My User Manual Play: https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/my-user-manual More about Matt Abrahams: https://mattabrahams.com/ Vocal Justice Charity: https://www.vocaljustice.org/ Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 1:37 - Welcome communication extraordinaire, Matt Abrahams! 3:12 - What does Matt’s User Manual say about how his communication style 7:20 - How jargon monoxide suffocates communication 12:01 - Tell the time, don’t build the clock 13:17 - The three parts of a communication goal 17:35 - Measuring your impact as a communicator 22:40 - Why empathy is missing from communication 25:41 - Structure sets you free! 30:12 - What, so what, now what 34:38 - The biggest communication challenges 39:28 - Prepare to be spontaneous 41:10 - Demystifying improv 44:25 - Other ways to practice being spontaneous 47:27 - AI and the future of communication 51:40 - Donating to Vocal Justice About Atlassian: Behind every great human achievement, there is a team. From medicine and space travel to disaster response and pizza deliveries, we help teams all over the planet advance humanity through the power of software. Our mission is to help unleash the potential of every team. Connect with Atlassian: Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Atlassian Follow Atlassian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atlassian Follow Atlassian on Instagram: https://instagram.com/atlassian Follow Atlassian on X: https://twitter.com/atlassian Follow Atlassian on Facebook: https://facebook.com/atlassian

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