Small talk often gets a bad reputation for being shallow and insignificant. However, mastering the art of meaningful small talk can significantly enhance your networking skills, build stronger ...

Small talk often gets a bad rap. It can feel awkward, superficial and pointless at times — if you're doing it wrong. But it's one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal to build relationships, ...

Increased daily happiness: Research shows that “simple social interactions,” such as engaging in conversation with strangers ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Dr. Cheryl Robinson covers areas of leadership, pivoting and careers. How do you prevent small talk during meetings so it doesn’t ...

Learning how to get better at small talk might not seem like much of a conversational superpower. Arguably everyone’s least favorite part of socializing, surface-level chitchat can be awkward, ...

Why do we humans make small talk? We spend a lot of time worrying about how to chit-chat amusingly or captivatingly. We complain when it seems trivial or a waste of time, and we bemoan the stress of a ...

Think about what it's like to be at a birthday dinner where you have to interact with your friend's neighbors for the first time, or what it's like to be waiting for a Zoom to begin with coworkers you ...

If you've ever had the unfortunate experience of saying the wrong thing at a staff meeting or a friend's housewarming party, you know just how easy it is to bungle small talk. The commonplace ...

Tension: We crave genuine connection but often feel inauthentic or drained by the social rituals designed to create it. Noise: Pop psychology and social pressure frame small talk as a necessary skill ...

Small talk has been a pain point for me for years, but it sank to new lows at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was at the playground one day, sweating in a K-95 while pushing my maskless ...

Making small talk can feel like an awkward dance you never wanted to learn. You're thrust into this social situation, desperately searching for common ground, yet the conversation seems to drag on ...

For some people, having to make small talk is a uniquely horrifying mode of torment. If this is true for you, it’s likely that you can recall in grim detail your last attempts to find a way to make ...