Marlee Matlin gave the 2026 commencement address at the University of Oregon in sign language - with simultaneous translation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 15, 2026 the deaf actress Marlee Matlin gave the commencement address at the University of Oregon in sign language - with simultaneous translation. There is a sixteen-minute YouTube video from the University of Oregon on June 30, 2026 titled Marlee Matlin’s 2026 Commencement Address at the University of Oregon.

 

And there is an article by Annie Aguiar at Lookout Eugene Springfield on June 15, 2026 titled Actress Marlee Matlin urged UO grads (including her daughter) to ‘be yourself’ which has a full transcript.

 

At 8:45 she says:

 

“Courage plus dreams equals success. It’s not certainty plus dreams. It’s not perfection plus dreams, it’s courage plus dreams. It is true that dreams are great, but they don’t mean much if you’re too afraid to go after them, and adding some courage is what gets you to take the chance. Courage is applying for the job you’re not sure you’re going to get. Courage is starting over when something isn’t working anymore. Courage is asking for help. Courage is accepting that sometimes you are wrong, and courage is getting back up after you fail, or when life knocks you down.”

 

And at 14:20 she says:

 

“So, as you leave here today, I hope you can remember a few things. One, be yourself when it’s hard. Two, don’t let the world tell your story for you. And three, as I said before make your bed and make sure to pay your taxes.”

 

The PBS American Masters TV series has a documentary about her titled Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore. It includes a minute and a half section you can watch on YouTube titled Marlee Matlin and Henry Winkler reminisce about their long friendship. Another six-minute video at Page Six on June 19, 2025 is titled Marlee Matlin reveals the famous TV star who let her live with his family for two years.  

 

Her portrait was retouched from this 2025 one at Wikimedia Commons.  

 

 

On May 11, 2026 Harrison Ford gave the undergraduate commencement address at Arizona State University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Mary Beth Faller at ASU News on May 11, 2026 titled Harrison Ford tells ASU’s class of 2026: ‘This is your time.’ You can watch his eleven-minute speech in a YouTube video titled Harrison Ford undergraduate commencement address: Arizona State University (ASU).

 

There is another article by Ingrid Vasquez at People on May 13, 2026 titled Harrison Ford encourages ASU graduates to ‘Go change the world’ in passionate commencement speech. Yet another article by Alix Martichoux at The Hill, also on May 13, 2026 is titled Harrison Ford’s rousing commencement speech goes viral: ‘The world my generation left you is a real mess.’  Her description is:

 

“In an inspiring speech to the class of 2026, actor Harrison Ford admitted to the mistakes of his generation, before calling on young people to change the world.

He kicked off his commencement address Monday at Arizona State University by admitting he didn’t always make the best choices when he was young. ‘I was squandering my life in riotous living,’ the 83-year-old said of his college years. He found himself in a drama class looking for an easy A grade, but fell in love with acting.

‘Hiding in character, costume and makeup, I had a freedom, a bravery I had never felt before – and I got an A!’ he joked. ‘I was, I realized, present for possibly the very first time in my life. My passion had led me to community.’

Ford pursued acting, he told the students, while working carpentry jobs to pay the bills and support his family. Even after the success [of] ‘Star Wars,’ when things got easier, something still wasn’t quite right.

 ‘The load lightened. I had freedom, opportunity, but something was still missing.’ He had found passion for acting, but not purpose in life.

 That changed in the 1980s, Ford said, when he discovered the nonprofit Conservation International. As he continued starring in episodes of ‘Star Wars,’ the ‘Indiana Jones’ series, ‘Blade Runner’ and more, he found his true purpose in activism on behalf of the environment.

 ‘Humanity is a part of nature, not above it,’ he continued, making a plea for environmental justice, social justice and protecting indigenous communities. ‘These communities have long understood that the trees, the mountain, water, soil are not commodities, they are relatives to be cherished.’

 ‘We can all play a role by embracing that wisdom in our day-to-day lives, by loving the planet, by honoring nature’s authority, her generosity, the bounty she affords us, the justice of her example,’ he said. ‘Because the world you’re stepping into, the world my generation left you is a real mess.’

‘Find a place for yourself,’ he continued. ‘Whatever talent or ambition you have, find some way to put it to work. Build something that didn’t exist yesterday. Stand up for someone who can’t stand up for themselves. Bring people together that weren’t talking before. That’s leadership. That’s what moves the needle.’

‘Your generation has far more power than you may realize. And if you harness that power, if you find your leadership, your issues, your voice, the world will not be able to ignore you.’

 He ended with a few more inspiring final words: ‘This is your time. Own it. Enjoy every second of it. Because what could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing that you haven’t fully lived it. Congratulations. Go change the world.’ ”

 A 2025 portrait of Harrison Ford was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Sundar Pichai gave the 2026 commencement speech at Stanford University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sundar Pichai (the CEO of Alphabet and Google) gave the 2026 commencement speech at Stanford University on June 14, 2026. There is a 14-minute YouTube video. That speech was published in Vital Speeches of the Day for August 2026, on pages 176 to 178 with the title Three Filters That Have Helped Me Get More Moments Right Than Wrong. Five headings from it are:

 

Very few moments in life are make or break

Choose optimism

Work on hard things

Do what excites you

Conclusion

 

The chorus from folksinger Kate Wolf’s song Here in California accurately has said:  

 

“Here in California

The fruit hangs heavy on the vine

There’s no gold, I thought I’d warn you

And the hills turn brown in the summertime”

 

Under Choose Optimism  (at 7:50)  Sundar’s seventh and eighth paragraphs instead say that:

 

“If you’re not from here, California is advertised as being really lush and green. But when I looked out the window, it was more...brown. I guess I said this out loud, I’m not sure why. My host, Mrs. Jane Earl, gently corrected me. ‘We prefer to call it golden,’ she said.

And that’s exactly what I mean by choosing optimism. It’s about reframing for the positive: Where I saw brown, she saw golden. This slight change of perspective had a huge ripple effect on how I thought about the world around me.”

A portrait of Sundar came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Comedian Conan O’Brien gave the 2026 commencement address at Harvard University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday May 28, 2026 comedian Conan O’Brien gave the commencement address at Harvard University. (He has a degree in history and literature from there). You can watch a 25-minute video of his speech either at Harvard University and Conan O’Brien or on C-SPAN.

 

And the text is on pages 187 to 190 in the August 2026 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day titled Your Real Education Starts Now. Four sentences printed in bold there are:

 

“The first is that I endeavor to always remind myself that I have done absolutely nothing alone.

 

…Another thing I learned to do that has saved me repeatedly is to pivot.

 

…I always recognize the enormous role of luck in my life.

 

…let yourself be bad at things.”  

 

He also seriously says that:

 

“I understand that I am preaching modesty and connection at a time when this is not in style. We are living through a period of extreme narcissism. 

Our current leadership in Washington believes that empathy is a weakness, and that our nation stands supreme and alone. Add to that, everyone here today has a phone in their pocket that is algorithmically programmed to celebrate you and you alone by making you the protein-maxing hero of your own special journey. 

Much has been written about how isolated and siloed we’ve become, but for me the antidote is quite simple. By de-emphasizing what makes us special, in your case, a prize degree, we can really find one another, not as an exercise in virtue, but as a path towards greater laughter, love, and real growth. And believe me, I struggle daily with my own pretensions.

I am aware that I am telling you to transcend your glories as I stand on this stage accepting a doctorate I didn’t really earn, well dressed like a 12th century pope. Big surprise, I have a giant ego.”

An image of Conan was modified from one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Between the Listening and the Telling of Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been skimming a 2022 book about storytelling by Mark Yaconelli titled Between the Listening and the Telling: How stories can save us. Google Books has a preview through page 21. There is a 29-second video at Hearth Community on August 2, 2022 titled Storytelling is being human together with this description:

 

“Storytelling is being human together. We tell stories to savor the pleasure of living. We share stories to help one another remember who we are and what matters. We tell stories to weave our lives together. We tell stories to keep our souls intact when suffering overtakes us. This is story as medicine. This is how story can save us.”   

 

Twelve chapters and three interludes in the book are titled:

 

A Place the Soul Once Knew

Confession

The Catacombs

Coming-Out Parade

Pure Medicine

Interlude: Clara

The Hearth

Storycatcher

Undocumented Stories

Tragedy

Interlude: Shoes

The Apocalypse

Sacred Stories

Interlude: The Faun

Home

There is an excerpt on June 28, 2022 at Broadleaf Books titled The Healing Power of Stories, taken from page 15 of Chapter 2: Confession. Another excerpt on September 5, 2023 at Thriving in Ministry titled ‘Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us' that comes on page 150 from Chapter 11: Sacred Stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a striking excerpt on page 93 from Chapter 7: Storycatcher says that:

 

“One night in an Irish pub, over dinner with writer Brian Doyle, I talked about my newly discovered work, drawing stories forth from people and towns and organizations. ‘You’re a seanachie,’ he declared. Seanachie, he explained, is a Gaelic word meaning ‘storycatcher.’ In traditional Irish towns, a storycatcher’s role was to unearth, gather, and share stories to strengthen and bind people to one another.

 

After Brian’s declaration, I began to claim my vocation as a storycatcher. I learned to ask questions that drew forth memories: A scared place from childhood. A memorable winter. A sacrifice. A missed opportunity. I learned to listen for patterns, for change, for the revealing heat of emotion. I read books by writers, oral historians, and professional storytellers and noted how they went about their craft. Over time I learned the warp and woof of stories, how they gather, arch, spiral, and spring forth. I learned how to root up the deepest stories from people and communities, how to catch their scent, how to ferret them out from the tangle of a person’s living.

 

I discovered that in every town the stories wait, like seeds beneath the concrete. They wait within the receptionist who sailed alone across the Black Sea, within the store manager who raised his two sisters after their mother died, within the well-dressed grandmother who spent her youth stealing horses in Saskatchewan. Lower me down into a seemingly empty, colorless place – a fast-food restaurant, a warehouse chain store, a gray office cubicle – and I will excavate a story that will break your heart, a true story that will bust your sides with laughter or unlock all that’s bound up in you, a story that will aim you like the North Star toward whatever is true and right. Give me a few hours of your time and I will mirror back a story from your life that will fill you with self-compassion. There’s no need to make anything up, no need for fiction. The truth waits to be told, but few know how to catch it. And fewer still know how to tell it.”

 

There is a 45-minute interview at Hearth Community on August 9, 2022 titled Anne Lamott Interviews Mark Yaconelli About His Newest Book.

 

Images of a fireside storyteller and lady catching a ball came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

How to write a five-star commencement speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 26, 2026 I blogged about how On May 2nd actor Hugh Jackman gave the commencement speech at Ball State University. When I was looking up the YouTube video for his speech to put in that post, I found a five-minute video from the Obama Foundation on May 21, 2026 titled How to write the perfect commencement speech. It has seven top tips from his presidential speechwriters:

 

Match the energy of the day!

Know your audience

Say something only you can say

Pick one big idea

Honor your audience’s accomplishment

Tell the truth

And (no surprise!) End With Hope

 

But I believe a perfect speech is an asymptote – a limit that can be approached but not quite reached. On February 20, 2011 I blogged about Effort and an asymptote.

 

The cartoon was assembled from a podium and star at OpenClipArt, and a speaker modified from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

On May 2nd actor Hugh Jackman gave the commencement speech at Ball State University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Katherine Hill in the Ball State Daily News on May 2, 2026 titled ‘You are living your own life; no one can take that away from you’: Hugh Jackman addresses Ball State graduates. Another article by Ella Chakarian in Fast Company on May 4, 2026 is titled Hugh Jackman tells new grads the most ‘painful lesson’ he’s learned. She presented some quotes:

 

“ ‘My life has not gone the way I thought it would,’ Jackman said. ‘A lot of the best things that have ever happened to me have been mistakes or failures or random classes I joined to get me across the finish line.’

 At the end of his speech, Jackman told the graduating class to ‘throw away perfect’ and to ‘embrace that even the mistakes may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us.’

 ‘Our minds, our brains, they want a plan,’ he said. ‘They have all sorts of good reasons to follow a path because it makes sense. But if we’re listening, if we open our hearts, that voice inside is trying to show us something a little more magical, a little more mysterious [and] surprising.’ “ 

You can watch the entire 19-minute speech posted at C-SPAN on May 3, 2026 and titled Hugh Jackman Commencement Address.

 

A cartoon of Mr. Jackman as The Wolverine came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

Your Best Meeting Ever is a very useful 2026 book by Rebecca Hinds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

There is a very useful 2026 book by Rebecca Hinds titled Your Best Meeting Ever: 7 Principles for designing meetings that get things done. Google Books has a  preview through page 27. An article by Roger Dean Duncan at Forbes on February 3, 2026 titled Stop Wasting Time: The Science of Meetings That Work discusses that book. He says:

 

“Hinds focuses on seven core principles that challenge many deeply held assumptions about meetings: treating meetings as a last resort rather than a default, measuring return on time invested, designing meetings around decision-making and complexity, keeping participation intentionally small, actively designing for engagement, protecting cognitive energy, and ensuring rigorous follow-through. Together, they form a blueprint for meetings that respect time, attention, and outcomes.”

 

There also is another article by Brandon Laws at xenium on February 3, 2026 titled Designing Meetings That Actually Get Work Done accompanied by a 36-minutes podcast at Xenium HR on February 3, 2026 titled Designing Meetings That Actually Get Work Done with Rebecca Hinds.

 

At the end of her book, starting on page 228, Rebecca summarizes THE SIMPLE MEETING DESIGN USER MANUAL as follows:

 

“Meetings are your most important product. Design them as if they are.

 

Principle 1

Volume: Cut Your Meeting Debt

 

Meetings pile up like technical debt – quietly draining time, energy, and sanity. Use these five steps to wipe out your meeting debt:

 

STEP 1: LAUNCH A CALENDAR CLEANSE. Delete your recurring meetings for forty-eight hours and rebuild your calendar from the ground up.

 

STEP 2: EQUIP EMPLOYEES TO DEFEND THEIR TOME. Give your team the tools – and permission – to say no to meetings.

 

STEP 3: BUILD A MEETING DEBT DEPOSITORY. Create a place where employees can flag bloated or broken meetings. And make sure leaders act on it.

 

STEP 4: ADD GUARDRAILS TO PREVENT MEETING DEBT. Use spped bumps, gatekeepers, and blocks to stop bad meetings before they hit the calendar.

 

STEP 5: COMMIT TO REGULAR MAINTENANCE. Hold recurring Meeting Doomsdays – and reward the people who don’t let the clutter creep back in.

 

Principle 2

Measurement: Choose the Right Metrics

 

You can’t fix what you don’t measure. And you also can’t fix what you measure badly. Stick to these four mantras for meaningful meeting measurement:

 

MANTRA 1: AVOID MSSLEADING METRICS. Watch out for four misleading metrics: sentiment, self-ratings, cost, and time saved. They’re easy to track. And easy to misinterpret.

 

MATRA 2: USE RETURN ON TIME INVESTED (ROTI). ROTI is your most brutally honest – and most reliable – metric for assessing whether a meeting was effective.

 

MANTRA 3: MEASURE WHAT MATTERS: Use meeting analytics to move past surface metrics and dissect what’s really going on. Start with time in meetings, airtime, multitasking, punctuality, and attendance.

 

MANTRA 4: BEWARE METRICS AS TARGETS. When a metric becomes a target, it stops driving progress. People start gaming the system instead of fixing the meeting.

 

Principle 3

Structure: Become a Meeting Minimalist

 

Apply the Rule of Halves and other minimalist strategies to cut the clutter from your meetings across four key dimensions: agenda, duration, attendees, and frequency.

 

DIMENSION 1: AGENDA. Every agenda item should have a job to do. Give it one by converting it into a verb-noun combination, like: ‘Decide budget,’ ‘Finalize draft messaging,’ or ‘Align on Q2 plan.’

 

DIMENSION 2: LENGTH. Beware Parkinson’s Law: Your meeting will expand to fill the time you give it. So set tight time limits and stick to them. 

 

DIMENSION 3: ATTENDEES. Follow the Rule of Eight: no more than eight attendees. Only invite stakeholders, not spectators.

 

DIMENSION 4: FREQUENCY. Eliminate meetings that happen too often, especially ‘meetings about the meetings.’ Prevent zombie meetings by giving each one an expiry date. Use the Disagree and Commit rule to shut down spin-off meetings – and make sure the real decision makers are in the room. 

 

Principle 4

Flow: Apply Systems Thinking

 

Broken meetings are often the result of broken communication outside of the meeting. Use these three upgrades to improve the flow – before, during, and after the meeting:

 

UPGRADE 1: STANDARDIZE YOUR COMMUNICATION TOOLS: Pick a core communication tech stack and stick to it. Then, standardize what justifies a live meeting with the 4D-CEO Test: meet only to discuss, decide, debate, or develop, and only if the topic is complex, emotionally intense, or involves a one-way door.

 

UPGRADE 2: DEFAULT TO ASYNCHORNOUS COMMUNICATION. Meetings should be your last resort, not your first. Build a system where work moves forward without needing real-time conversations.

 

UPGRADE 3: DESIGN FOR DISTANCE. Don’t just design for the people in the room. Make sure your communication system works for everyone, everywhere.

 

Principle 5

Engagement: Prioritize User-Centric Design

 

Meetings should serve the people in the room – not just the person who scheduled them. Start by squashing these four energy-sucking bugs:

 

ENERGY-SUCKING BUG 1: POWER MOVES. Don’t let volume, title, or ego run your meeting. When one person dominates, everyone else checks out.

 

ENERGY-SUCKING BUG 2: LATENESS. Start on time. End on time. Respect for people starts with respect for the clock.

 

ENERGY-SUCKING BUG 3: JARGON. Jargon doesn’t make you sound smart. It just makes your message harder to understand and easier to ignore. Speak like a smart ninth grader. Ditch the buzzwords and gobbledygook.

 

ENERGY-SUCKING BUG 4: BOREDOM. Beige rooms breed beige ideas. Add plants, color, light, movement, or food. And make sure every meeting has at least one moment of delight.

 

Principle 6

Timing: Get Your Message in Rhythm

 

The best meetings sync with the natural flow of work – not interrupt it. Align your meetings to three key rhythms:

 

RHYTHM 1: STRATEGIC RHYTHM. Sync your strategy meetings with your company’s goal-setting cycles and anchor them to a single source of truth.

 

RHYTHM 2: TACTICAL RHYTHM. Align your tactical meetings with key project milestones: premortem, midpoint check-ins, and postmortems.

 

RHYTHM 3: OPERATIONAL RHYTHM. Match operational meetings like daily huddles to the rhythm of your day-to-day work. Protect deep work with strategic meeting pauses: no-meeting days, blocks, and buffers.

 

Principle 7:

Technology: Innovate and Iterate

 

Treat your meetings like a product in beta that needs constant upgrading and refining. Stick to these rules:

 

RULE 1: GET YOUR MVP RIGHT. Prioritize clear audio and video quality before piling on extra features.

 

RULE 2: EMBRACE CALM TECHNOLOGY. When adding new technology to your meetings, follow two calm principles. First, it should require minimal effort to use. Second, it should amplify the best of both humans and technology.

 

RULE 3: RELENTLESSLY PROTOTYPE WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Use AI to handle the grunt work, surface real-time insights, and (sometimes) attend meetings for you. But never run a meeting on an AI autopilot.

 

You have the blueprint. Now go design your best meeting ever.”

 

The cartoon was adapted from one of an interview at OpenClipArt.

 

 

Be aware of speakers and audience members with mobility challenges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a useful post by Rich Hopkins at his Speak & Deliver blog on February 27, 2026 titled A Plea to Meeting Planners. He had his left leg amputated below the knee. Rich says to plan inclusively:

 

 “Ask speakers about mobility needs in advance - Ensure ramps are visible, safe, and easy to use - Provide seating options on stage - Reduce unnecessary distances when possible - Think about attendee navigation, not just speaker logistics.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, on stage there preferably should be a chair with arms rather than a high stool.

 

Rich made it to the semi-finals (top eighty) of the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking seven times and the finals (top ten) three times, as was discussed in an article by Joe Rubino in the Broomfield Enterprise on August 17, 2011 titled Broomfield man aiming to be the roast of Toastmasters.

 

You can watch an 8-minute YouTube video of his speech titled What We Knew Then at Rich Hopkins 2006 Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking Third Place. (At 6 – 1 /2 minutes he sits down in a chair). And you can watch his Top Ten speech from 2008, Unthinkable.

 

Most of us don’t think much about mobility challenges either for speakers or the audience. I only did after I broke my fibula, which I blogged about on November 24, 2016 in a post titled What I’m thankful for today – recovering from a broken fibula.

 

There also is an article by Dane Cobain at speakerHUB on September 26, 2023 titled How to Make Your Public Speaking Events More Accessible.

 

Images of an amputee, a chair and a stool were adapted from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

The Next Conversation is a thoughtful book by Jefferson Fisher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a thoughtful 292-page book from 2025 by Jefferson Fisher titled The Next Conversation: Argue less, talk more. He is a writer, speaker, and trial lawyer. At Google Books there is a brief preview of up to page 28.

 

On page 269 there is a summary, The 47-Second Version:

 

“Number one: Never win an argument, or you’ll lose a lot more than you gain. When you regulate your reactions before responding, you keep a clear head and a calm mind.

 

Number two: Confidence isn’t an act, it’s an outcome. Use words and short phrases that assert your needs and protect your values without fear of disappointment. When you embrace your assertive voice, you make a pathway for more positive change in your life.

 

Number three: Don’t worry yourself over how to change an entire relationship. Focus on changing the next conversation. When you frame a conversation as something to learn, rather than something to prove, you take out the difficulty in building connection.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He does a good job of illustrating concepts via simple line drawings, like one from page 37 showing what is said versus what is felt, which is shown above by my colorized version.

 

Chapter 7 is titled Assertive Voice. Jefferson describes:  

 

10 Ways to Practice Assertiveness Now

Lesson 1: Every Word matters

Lesson 2: Prove it to yourself

Lesson 3: Express your needs unapologetically

Lesson 4: Speak when it matters

Lesson 5: Say less

Lesson 6: Remove filler words

Lesson 7: Never undersell

Lesson 8: Cut the excess

Lesson 9: When in doubt, fall back on experience

Lesson 10: Say ‘I’m confident’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on page 159 he compares assertive voice with submissive or aggressive voice, which I have shown above via my colorized version.  

 

Chapter 10 is titled Frames. Beginning on page 215 he describes How to Frame a Conversation:

 

Set a direction

Call your shot

Get their commitment

One frame, one issue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have illustrated this by my own graphic, shown above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 11 is titled Defensiveness and begins on page 225. My colorized version of his illustration on page 232 of how Defensiveness Builds a Wall is shown above. On page 238 he discusses How to Stop Yourself from Getting Defensive:

 

Catch yourself

Let their words fall

Get Curious

 

And on page 239 he discusses How to Prevent the Other Person from Getting Defensive:

 

Begin your sentence with ‘I,’ not ‘You’

Don’t begin your question with ‘Why?’

Acknowledge first

 

There is a pair of articles by Angela Haupt in TIME magazine about the book. One on May 14, 2025 is titled 8 Ways to Respond When Someone Interrupts You. Another on May 16, 2025 is titled The Best Way to Interrupt Someone.

 

Jefferson has a bunch of YouTube videos. A recent long one (1hr 35 min) on February 19, 2026 is titled Simple Phrases to INSTANTLY Silence Disrespect | Jefferson Fisher.

 

A 1919 drawing by Taylor F. Walter of men conversing is from the Library of Congress.

 

 

Watch out for different cultural styles!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a good, brief article by Maria Garaitonandia on pages 26 and 27 in the February 2026 issue of Toastmaster magazine titled Untangling cultural knots and subtitled How to turn misunderstandings into bridges between cultures. Also there is a 32-minute Toastmasters Podcast (on YouTube) with Bo Bennett titled #292 Untangling Cultural Knots to Create Mutual Connection – Maria Garaitonandia.

 

Maria talks about two different cultural types that focus on either relationships or tasks. She begins with an example of Mexican executive Pedro and his American colleague Owen in her second and third paragraphs:

 

“When an urgent matter needed Owen’s sign-off, Pedro hurried to his office, only to find him on the phone. Pedro peeked in, but Owen didn’t acknowledge him, so he walked in and interrupted Owen by signaling with his hand.

 

Taken aback, Owen interrupted his conversation and said to Pedro, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’ Pedro apologized and tried to explain, but Owen interrupted him and said, ‘When I’m finished, I’ll take care of it,’ and promptly turned his back on Pedro.”

 

Then Maria talks about cultures focused either on relationships or tasks. In cultures focused on relationships (like Brazil, Mexico or in the Middle East) trust and loyalty are the priorities. Communication is contextual and layered. Being attentive and available shows respect. In cultures focused on tasks (like Germany Switzerland or the United States) efficiency and results. Communication is direct, concise, and explicit. Following schedules and procedures shows respect. These differences are summarized above via my PowerPoint table based on her discussion. I think a similar table would have been a useful addition to the article, but could have been left out due to squeezing it into just two pages.

 

Of course, if we were doing a speech that table better would be a build with the following four PowerPoint slides – adding the new information in green and graying out the previous information: