Book summaries
Hard conversation book summaries
These are the books behind Real Talk Studio. How to say the thing, hear the thing, and stay in the room.
If your organisation is installing AI, new ways of working, or a culture programme, the work still happens in conversations nobody scheduled. Start with Radical Candor or Crucial Conversations, then the listening books.
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33 summaries

The Next Conversation
9/10 · 21 Aug 2026

Nonviolent Communication
8/10 · 20 Aug 2026

Thanks for the Feedback
9/10 · 19 Aug 2026

Getting to Yes
8/10 · 18 Aug 2026

The Culture Map
9/10 · 17 Aug 2026

Humble Inquiry
9/10 · 16 Aug 2026

We Need to Talk
8/10 · 15 Aug 2026

Just Listen
8/10 · 14 Aug 2026

What Got You Here Won't Get You There
9/10 · 13 Aug 2026

Dare to Lead
9/10 · 12 Aug 2026

Listen
10/10 · 21 Nov 2024

How To Listen
7/10 · 13 Nov 2024

How To Know a Person
9/10 · 30 Oct 2024

Speak So Your Audience Will Listen
9/10 · 17 Oct 2024

The Laws of Connection
9/10 · 10 Oct 2024

Difficult Conversations
9/10 · 22 Aug 2024

The Pathless Path
9/10 · 23 Jul 2024

Pitch Anything
8/10 · 20 Jun 2024

Ask
9/10 · 20 Jun 2024

Radical Candor
10/10 · 2 May 2024

Crucial Conversations
9/10 · 2 May 2024

Fierce Conversations
10/10 · 23 Apr 2024

Supercommunicators
6/10 · 13 Mar 2024

The First Minute
10/10 · 13 Dec 2022

The Disciplined Listening Method
5/10 · 14 Aug 2022

How to Win Friends and Influence People
10/10 · 21 Jul 2022

A More Beautiful Question
9/10 · 12 Jul 2022

Never Split the Difference
10/10 · 10 Jul 2022

Catalyst
7/10 · 5 Dec 2021

High Conflict
9/10 · 7 Sept 2021

Connect
10/10 · 15 Aug 2021

Rapport
6/10 · 13 Apr 2021

You’re Not Listening
9/10 · 17 Feb 2021
Practice, not theory
Reading about the conversation isn't practising it.
Real Talk Studio is the driving test — try the same conversation against an AI counterpart before it happens for real.