Big Talk is for anyone at work who wants conversations that go somewhere: the colleague who wants to know the person at the next desk, the manager who wants one-to-ones that matter, the person who hosts the team lunch or the away day. It suits quieter people as much as talkative ones, because it is about the depth of a conversation, not the amount of talking.
It treats good conversation as a set of learnable skills. You learn to ask questions that are open-ended, that anyone can answer, and that invite a story, and to answer them yourself before you ask anyone else. From there you practise the inner side of connection: listening with empathy, sharing at a level that fits the relationship, speaking with sincerity, and keeping an open mind.
The first module, Foundations, starts with Big Talk 101: The Three-Criteria Question Test and The Big Talk Questionnaire of twelve foundational questions. Later you keep the Empathic Listening Journal, plan a hard conversation in Communicate Through Challenges, and log the conversations you start in the Initiator Tracker. For a team day or a dinner, The Big Talk Facilitator Playbook walks you through planning the event step by step, and The Big Talk Question Bank lets you draw a question by category.
On WorkSmart4Life this course sits under Connect, the move about teams, leading and conversation, and it suits a team that chose Relationships in Work Well Together. Meeting view in the free Wisdom of Work explorer gives you a ready question for the start of a meeting. Begin with Big Talk 101; a free 24-hour trial of the whole course is open to you.
Dr Alten du PlessisFounder, WorkSmart4Life