Quotes from Reviews and Commentary
“The riveting stories in this volume will make you weep--and learn
and grow. What more could you ask for as a parent or a leader.”
Jerome T. Murphy, Harold Howe II Professor of
Education and dean emeritus, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2006
“Talk Sense is simply unmatched in the crowded field of
books on communication skills; it is invaluable for leaders. Barry Jentz
brings the perfect balance of theory and practical examples to this compact
work. His thirty-five years of experience in this field allow him to go
to the heart of success with difficult conversations -- what it takes
to set them up and the skills to bring them to amazingly positive outcomes.
Stories, skill-scripts, and explanations make it accessible to veteran
and novice alike. There’s nothing like it.”
Jon Saphier, Founder and President of Research
for Better Teaching, Inc. and Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Teachers
21, 2006
"Establishing a new $500 million division within a company is not
an easy task, especially when the new division’s charter is to take
over troubled parts of the company and turn them around, then sell them
or return them to their original divisions in the company. The new Metal
Refining Division’s charter in the Amax Corporation was exactly
that. To make the task more challenging, the troubled parts of the company
(metal processing facilities) were located in various parts of the country,
targeted at different markets, and employed separate manufacturing processes
and technologies.
“When I became head of the Metal Refining Division, I read stories
from Talk Sense: Communicating to Lead and Learn (CLL) and attended
the CLL Seminar. I was so impressed that I brought it in-house for our
senior executives. At first, it wasn't an easy sell, because some of these
executives had considerable experience (30 years) and had already achieved
success in other divisions of the corporation. By the end of the program,
enthusiasm for CLL was so high that we extended it to others in all disciplines.
“I have used the CLL program successfully as
the head of other businesses. Throughout my career, I have never seen
a program have such an immediate and lasting impact as CLL. It provides
the participants with a conceptual framework to better understand themselves
and others, as well as useful skills for significantly improving overall
communication both within the organization and with customers. It is a
sound investment."
Tony La Russo, President of Metal Refining Operations,
AMAX Inc., 2004
“When your high-priced management consultant tells you ‘well,
everyone is just going to have to act like an adult,’ watch out!
Your critical project is probably about to derail because of people problems
that seem so intractable that even the best business thinkers find themselves
hoping they can be wished (or ordered) away. For leaders who have found
that just telling people to be different than they are rarely helps, Barry
Jentz’s Talk Sense: Communicating to Lead and Learn offers
new hope in the shape of a practical guidebook to transformational learning.
Change is never easy, but it is possible for those who have been made
willing, by courage or desperation, to examine the reflexive assumptions
we would most like to keep hidden. With this book, Jentz shows leaders
how to begin the journey."
Mark Ledden, Founding Director, Kenning Associates,
2006
“Ordering my finance team to work together (my strong suit) wasn’t
working, so I read stories that appear in Talk Sense: Communicating
to Lead and Learn (CLL) and turned to the CLL program. Of course,
people bitched, but remarkably, everyone came away with a positive attitude.
They began making an effort to listen to what others were saying, genuinely
taking the time to understand the wants and needs of others. The knowledge
that people hear and react differently to the same situation created an
awakening that individuals could learn by listening/seeing how people
around them see the world. In fact, my staff got reacquainted with the
people around them, after working together for over 25 years.”
Eric Resker, Vice President/North American Controller,
Elkem Metals Company, 2004
“It works! What more do you need to know? Looks like voodoo if you
haven’t done it. Yet it’s useful and tough in forcing the
light to go on. Wakes you up. Makes you discover your own WAY, as distinct
from other people’s legitimate WAYS. Talk Sense: Communicating
to Lead and Learn is nasty, hard, indispensable stuff for successful
leadership – learning to see how you’re seen and see the same
issue from another’s very different view. The more you work at it,
the more it works for you. It’s worked for me at The Durst Organization
and Morgan Stanley!”
Jeff Meaney, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley,
2005
“Senior managers and leaders are often trapped in their own paradigm
of communicating ‘by reflex,’ unable effectively to hear colleagues
and subordinates or give them useful feedback, feedback that can be used
immediately to change behavior and project outcomes. While developing
a large commercial office building, we utilized the stories in Talk
Sense: Communicating to Lead and Learn (CLL) along with the related
CLL seminar to create an effective team culture across a disparate group
of senior managers and leaders from the real estate, design and construction
industry. This was an extremely aggressive project that was completed
on time and within budget, in part because the CLL program provoked us
to discover our current, by-reflex paradigm for communication, and challenge
it successfully by using ‘reflective’ listening and feedback
skills to change our face-to-face interactions. Additionally, every member
of the team prized their how-to-work-as-a-team learning and carried the
skills forward to other transactions and projects.”
John H. Pierce, Vice President & General
Manager, Turner Interiors National Group, 2005
“During an eighteen-year career as Director of Employee Development
at the Boston Globe, I had the opportunity and means to contract with
the “best and brightest” companies in the field of Human Resource
Development. Initially, I contracted with a few of these companies and
was invariably disappointed when results fell short of expectations. Then,
after reading stories that appear in Talk Sense: Communicating to
Lead and Learn (CLL) and attending the CLL program with my boss,
I used it with as many Globe managers and employees as possible every
year for eighteen years, to provide them with the mind-and-skill set they
needed to work together more productively as well as to improve the company’s
bottom line.
Robert D. Henderson, Director of Employee Development,
The Boston Globe, 2000
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