Generative Communication - Making Meaning with Others

Even jaded commuters like myself can feel a sense of awe at the heroic flight that the Grand Central Terminal evokes. Sometimes it creates the wonder of the actual sky itself. Looking up at the stars, our ancestors made stories about what those feelings meant -- a charioteer heads into battle and a lion pursues his prey across the sky or a ceiling. We -- like they -- are meaning-making creatures. The best communicators know that making meaning with others requires not just an exchange of ideas but a sharing of stories that engage the head, the heart and the gut.

The foundation of what I do is to coach others to have generative conversations, always seeking a win-win result. The very best speakers have such conversations with individuals in their audiences, as if no one else was there. The more speakers can develop this habit, the less nerves are a problem, and the more we can build connection and trust.

Seen this way, every conversation in our lives is an opportunity to become a more effective speaker. As such, I set goals for my clients that address every aspect of their personality. And, we can work on those aspects, building one on the other, overtime. Indeed, when clients and students have an opportunity to address an audience, I help them focus on two tasks:

To deliver your message in a way that grabs their attention and resonates with them as meaningfully memorable. And, ideally, encourages them to change their behavior.
To read the room, and the individuals in it, to discern the metamessage that their body language seems to convey.

Hello

My name is David Purdy

I have spent my whole life studying a broad range of disciplines to figure out how to communicate well and how to coach others to do the same. For myself, I had no choice. My father was a banker and my mother was an artist, and so I had to learn to speak both languages. I've spent a quarter century in just about every kind of finance you can imagine. And I've also spent many years on stage, as a classically-trained lieder singer and actor. More than 15 years ago, I became a business communication professor -- for most of that as a full-time professor at NYU's Stern School of Business. I've spent most of that time translating between those worlds to help my students and clients communicate with all of their humanity -- not just as a science but as an art.

Here's a link to my podcast on Stern Chats.

About Me