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In Listen and learn: how to make better conversation, Michael Rosen is joined by Eddy Canfor-Dumas and Peter Osborn, authors of a recent book called The Talking Revolution. The pair explain their initiative for improving the quality of human connection: how we talk and relate to each other worldwide. Improving our dialogue is good for everything - from beating problems in the boardroom to resolving conflict on a global scale, and at home.

So listen up! Here are seven tips for how to make better conversation.

Many of us are in constant ‘transmit mode’, and find it much harder to switch to ‘receiving mode’, but this causes all sorts of problems in personal and professional relationships.

In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey states ‘seek to understand before seeking to be understood.’ In essence, listen first.

It’s important to absorb the other person’s point of view and try to fully understand what they are saying before you start to give your opinion or issue your challenge to them.

2. Show your understanding

Once you understand the other person’s point of view, show that understanding by feeding back to them what you’ve heard. Useful responses are “exactly” or “I couldn’t have put it better myself.” These demonstrate that you’re on the same wavelength. When the person knows they’re understood then you can start to offer suggestions or challenge something they’ve said or thought – but not before.

We’ve all got conversational habits that we’ve grown up with but sometimes we’re not aware of them ourselves. These might be drifting off when someone else is talking, or rambling on so that no one else can get a word in edgeways.

Try and work out what these patterns are and recognise when they’re emerging. It’s time to challenge these habits and instead focus on listening and understanding.

5. Don’t listen to criticise

Some people will listen in order to better criticise, finding clues to use as arrows to throw back at the opposition. This is something that we see every day in the world of politics where people form polarising tribes and then struggle to talk across those divides.

Don’t listen in order to pull out potential verbal weapons but listen to better understand the other side of the argument.

Eddy and Peter have a useful group exercise: they put two individuals together (who may have just met) and ask them to quickly find something that they disagree on. They then make one person stick in the role of understanding while the other explains what they feel.

It can help those individuals to realise what an amazing gift it is to lend someone an ear - and how rare it is. Try actively practising this skill with a friend so you can then fall back on it when you find yourself in a real moment of conflict or disagreement.

Face-to-face communication is the gold standard and the further you move away from that gold standard the narrower the channel through which you’re trying to communicate.

On the telephone, for example, you don’t have the physical presence – your voice has to do all the work. With texting there is no voice even, just written words. And if you’re using anonymity on Twitter and other social media platforms, the channel is even narrower.

Capacitated by pseudonyms, conversations can more easily become insulting and abusive. It’s important to understand a different channel’s capacity to help or hinder communication. If you can, aim for face-to-face communication whenever and wherever possible.