Productive Discussion Quotes

Public discourse requires making an argument for a point of view, not having an argument - as in having a fight.

I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking. People would confront a problem by creating a presentation. I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides. People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint.

Floor time is valuable. Our leadership isn't going to bring something up that's going to take up floor time and not be successful.

I like it when someone tells me 'I don't agree.' This is a true collaborator. When they say 'Oh, how great, how great, how great,' that's not useful.

Before you decide to have an argument, think about what you really want to accomplish. Do you just want to let your feelings out, or is there a point you are trying to make? What is it?

The best meeting I ever went to was a meeting in France where the talk slots were 60 minutes long, but you were told to prepare a five-minute talk. It was absolutely great because the entire talk was a conversation between the speaker and the audience.

If you start a conversation with the assumption that you are right or that you must win, obviously it is difficult to talk.

Nothing makes everyone feel more like the meeting was worth it, than ending by saying it would be good to follow up when everyone's in the same place.

To me, the best purpose of an interview would be to illuminate some things about how somebody works for the benefit of somebody else who wants to do those things. And that's not where most interviews go at all, so to me, they seem like strange exercises in small talk and wasted air.

You don't want to pretend that 9/11 ended in 2002 with the first anniversary. So how do you frame the post-9/11 world and play a productive role in discussing it?

We should have a conversation when we hang up.

I have ideas, but those ideas could be wrong. The only way that you would change someone's mind is through dialogue, through productive discussion. If you're not going to have productive discussion, what are you going to do?

I find discussing mathematics with colleagues of different backgrounds one of the most productive ways of making progress.

Contrary to popular wisdom, the mark of a great meeting is not how short it is or whether it ends on time. The key is whether it ends with clarity and commitment from participants.

Already for thirty-five years he had not stopped talking and almost nothing of fundamental value had emerged.

I practiced drawing all the time and became very interested in it. If I was at a meeting that wasn't getting anywhere - like the one where Carl Rogers came to Caltech to discuss with us whether Caltech should develop a psychology department - I would draw the other people.