Awkward Conversations: Radical Honesty

At a party or conference where small talk with someone nearby becomes awkward:

• excuse yourself to get a drink/coffee.
• say “It’s nice talking to you, but I have to talk to someone before they leave.”
• if your conversation is on the phone, end it by saying, “...

Two factors create a ‘coordination problem’ during an awkward conversation.

• The first is that we assume we know when the other person wants to leave but we calculate that incorrectly.
• The second factor is when we know what the other person wants but still cannot end the conv...

One of the most relatable forms of anxiety is when we want an awkward conversation to be over, but cannot make it happen.

Studies on conversation dynamics show that they rarely end when we want them to, lasting up to twice as long. This includes the guy at the gym who ...