[pavlov]

I liked “Supercommunicators” by Charles Duhigg.

It’s not quite a word-by-word guide, but the examples are captivating and there’s practical advice on how to listen and ask better questions to create a connection.

One of the things he highlights is that a communication situation usually requires both small-scale experimentation and exposing some your own vulnerabilities to discover what might be relevant to the other person in that conversation. That means there’s inherently an element of risk-taking: you can’t stick to a single safe formula each time and expect to connect.