Act 1, Scene 1:
Person: Hi… How are you?
Me: I’m fine. You?
Person: Oh, I’m good.
«insert awkward silence here.»
«Scanning brain for something to break the awkward silence.»
Me: So, where do you work?
Person: Kraft. You?
Me: Awedis
Person: Oh. What do you do there?
Me: Marketing. You?
Person: Finance
Me: Cool.
Person: Cool.
Insert another awkward silence here as I wrack my brain trying to come up with a conversation or plot my escape.
“Please phone, please ring,” I plead silently, a weak smile plastered across my face.
Does this only happen to me or can you relate?
Chances are your new acquaintance probably feels just as awkward. How do you deal? You can’t avoid networking events forever. You know what “they” say: Your network is your net worth. Hmmm… that might explain the status of my bank account.
But alas, there is hope. The folks at Science of People have suggestions on how to improve your tolerance for small talk and avoid the dreaded stalled conversation.
Among the many fascinating topics was one that covered the mastery of small talk. Their suggestion? Create conversation pieces… don’t ask those typical, (translation: boring) run of the mill questions.
Ask questions that create conversations and allow people to share their stories.
Conversation Starters
Here are a few questions to help us get the ball rolling and hopefully banish the dead-end small talk forever – or at least make these unavoidable networking events more bearable.
1. What was the most exciting thing that happened today at work/home? Break the “How was your day? Good. Yours?” cycle.
2. Do you know how you got your name? People love to talk about themselves so ask interesting questions.
3. What do you think about …? Social media has proven just how much people like to share their opinions on everything under the sun.
4. Did you know…? Wow them with your incredible knowledge of some topic of interest.
Science of People also said that great conversation starters have the added bonus of making you more memorable by triggering pleasurable feelings in your conversation partner.
Would you try these tips? What are some other questions to keep in your arsenal? How do you cope with small talk?
Happy chit-chatting!