Making Conversation | A Virtual Discussion with Author Fred Dust

Join Grace Farms Foundation, UConn Department of Public Policy, and Leadership Greater Hartford for a virtual discussion with Fred Dust, former Senior Partner and Global Managing Director at the acclaimed design firm IDEO, about his book, Making Conversation. Mr. Dust will be joined by Dr. Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, Professor of History & Latinx American Studies and Director of the Hartford Campus of the University of Connecticut.

“We all know that leading conversations between groups who don’t see eye to eye is challenging. We’ve needed a road map for making these conversations productive and solutions-oriented, and now we have one in Making Conversation.”

—Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global

Conversations are one of the most fundamental means of communicating we have as humans. At their best, conversations are unconstrained, authentic and open—two or more people sharing thoughts and ideas in a way that bridges our individual experiences, achieves a common goal. At their worst, they foster misunderstanding, frustration, and obscure our real intentions.

In his practice as a designer, Fred Dust began to approach conversations differently. After years of trying to broker communication between colleagues and clients, he came to believe there had to be a way to design conversation itself with intention and purpose, while retaining its artful and playful qualities. Making Conversation codifies what he learned and outlines the four elements essential to successful exchanges: Commitment, Creative Listening, Clarity, and Context. Learn how these four elements, taken together, form a set of resources anyone can use to be more deliberate and purposeful in making conversations work, and examine how we can come together to tackle difficult topics and bridge our individual experiences to achieve better communication.