The First Minute: How to Start Conversations That Get Results by Chris Fenning

The First Minute: How to Start Conversations That Get Results Reviews

• 
  Bjoern Rochel

  Very concise and actionable advice for effective communication without the usual fluff around it. 100 pages that are worth your time.
  
  I wish I read a book like this earlier in my career. Many things in there I had to learn the hard way. Should be a recommended read in workplace settings for aspiring managers and leads.
• 
  Mike Wheby

  Wonderful book full of tools and tactics to improve messaging. Practical and immediately actionable.
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  Lara Rezapour

  As a supervisor of a large team, I wish everyone would read this book. It’s great for learning how to get to the point in a fast pace corporate structure.
• 
  Joel Schwartzberg

  A clear and concise guide to effecting instantaneous impact through a range communications—no matter how detailed or complicated. Grab your highlighter!
• 
  Cassandralynn

  I found the activities and practice in this book to be extremely helpful in my every day communications. I thought coverage of knowing your audience, respecting other’s time constraints, and managing the scope of meetings was particularly insightful. Many of these ideas are implied but never taught explicitly so this was a helpful guide on professionalism and expediting meaningful conversations.
• 
  Simon Hohenadl

  Excellent manual for how to communicate at work (and in others area of life I believe). Probalby obvious for many, but exactly what others will need.
• 
  Alixe

  It s really only about the first minute - i expected a bit more but it wouldn't be fair to include that in the review
  
  No ground breaking advice, but actionable frameworks to be more to the point.
  
  I will probably need to re read once a year 😅
• 
  Michael

  Really useful and practical advice on how to communicate with others in a work environment. I'll definitely listen to this again. Highly recommended.
  
  2023-02-18
  Second time through. Still really good, and I've recommended it to others. I find the second half to be a bit harder to follow than the first, and CIK (context, intent, key message) not as mnemonicy as GPS (goal, problem, solution). A simple chart of when/how to use these tools would be useful. I suspect, as other reviewers have suggested, that this book could be shortened.
• 
  Rich B

  A business focussed book I took a random punt on in a Kindle Deal sale. The premise was interesting, with a focus on how to get to the point much quicker in a work conversation and avoid the usual waffling, small talk and irrelevant chat.
  
  Overall, it was a decent read, I liked the framework he set up for planning out how to start a work conversation. It’s got six key elements - Context / Intent / Key Message and Goal / Problem / Solution and he explains these very clearly.
  
  It’s a helpful tool to be clear when you start a conversation, and it’s worth a read just to learn that framework alone. It’s particularly useful for dealing with people who are all action-focussed and don’t do small talk.
  
  However, other than then showing lots of different situations and examples in which to use this framework, I didn’t feel there was too much else to this book. If I’d paid full price, I might have thought it wasn’t great value for such a light take-out.
  
  His writing style is OK, although at times, it felt like sitting in an HR training session with someone at the front writing this stuff out on a flipchart. That’s fine, but you probably do that stuff at work anyway, so reading it in a book made it feel a bit flat and lacking in any spark.
  
  It also didn’t talk much about other types of work conversation that are more about relationship building and connection. It felt very focussed on a specific type of working style, without giving any help on how to talk to other styles.
  
  Good as far as it goes, does what it sets out to do, no more, no less.
• 
  Anton

  If you talk to anyone, you need to read this book :)
  
  The book is focused on one thing: how to start a conversation successfully. It gives clear and concise frameworks for structuring the beginning of any conversation.
  
  I really like that the book is practical. It gives you one concrete structure for the fist minute of every conversation and it argues why this structure works.
  
  The only issue I see is that once you get the idea (which is the first half of the book) the rest of the book gets kind of obvious, so for me the application of this framework to emails, calendar invites and so on has been redundant.
• 
  Ardelia Meizana

  Worth to read because it gives you a concise guide on how to communicate better in a short amount of time!
  
  Gained a lot of insights regarding the stigmas in communication. One of my favorites is the fact that we believe the audience needs to know all the details before they can understand what we say but to be effective and easily understandable you have to always start with the least amount of information and data possible to make your point. Too much information will cause confusion and harder for people to understand your intention and purpose
• 
  Chad Horenfeldt

  Very practical and easy to use
  
  I love books that can make small improvements in your day to day. This book is one of those. I was using a similar format that was described in this book but the author deconstructs the ways to communicate into their bare bones which allows you to fine tune your communication skills. I found myself using the framing technique right away and I plan to use GPS as well. Highly recommended if you want to improve your communication skills with executives.
• 
  Hassan Ah

  I'm pleasantly surprised by this book.
  I didn't expect it to impress me this much, but the writing and information were really good.
  It provided me with totally novel insights that I can see myself applying perpetually in my life
• 
  Remco

  This is a great little nugget of a book (only ~115 pages) that gives you a easy to remember model to work with and improve your work conversations. The first minute in the title of the book refers is the first minute of the start of a work conversation.
  
  The writer offers a specific order to go through in that first minute to frame the conversation:
  Context - Intent - Key Message
  
  The first 2/3 of the book dives into practicalities to apply this in face to face conversations, the last third is about applying it to other related forms of communication, like emails.
  
  Since reading the book I have become much more aware of my own shortcomings as well as recognising when others don't start with context and intent upfront.
• 
  Miriam Smith

  Very practical for anyone in the corporate or professional world of communication. Every board and committee meeting would benefit from every individual putting these strategies to use. However the techniques are not ones you would want to use in a conversation with your friend.
• 
  Ken Murphy

  Worth a read but a little dull. I slowly chipped away at this while on planes
• 
  Vinny M

  Excellent short book to ensure you are being understood and framing conversations properly
• 
  Dave Wentworth

  Very helpful frameworks
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  Courtney Jackson

  Best book I’ve ever read about communication at work. Big for me with a fully remote team but very very helpful for anyone in a corporate or startup office environment
• 
  Amir

  A useful book on techniques to start and structure conversations efficiently to have more effective work conversations. Serves the purpose.
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  Mosam Thakkar

  Pretty self explanatory tips on how to communicate with colleagues or people in a professional environment. Though it is quite needed for most people.
• 
  Jan Brinkmann

  gamechanger and a must read
• 
  Racer_rajesh

  Great book, the handbook comes with summary ... and lots of space for practice. Must read for all managers. If they set the example, it will be soon followed by the employees....