Ever since Daniel Goleman came up with “Emotional Intelligence” new and new forms of intelligence get discovered all the time. This time it is “Conversational Intelligence” – an ability to effectively communicate that separate unsuccessful people from successful in all areas of human activities from business to marriage.

This intelligence has 3 levels: Level 1 is just a communications necessary to transact business and share information; Level II – positional conversation when individuals state their position and try to influence positions of counterparts; Level III – the highest level when conversation turns into joint effort to shape reality according to mutually agreed form.

As help in achieving level III of conversations a mnemonic of STAR SKILLS is provided:
1. Build Rapport
2. Listen Actively
3. Ask smart questions
4. Dramatize message
5. Reinforce success

Also significant attention is allocated to emotional side of conversation. All this is supported by references to experiments using fMRI technology to analyze process of conversations.

The book is divided into tree chapters dedicated to 3 topics:
1. Why we need conversational intelligence?
2. How to raise you own conversational intelligence
3. Getting to the greatness in conversations
All this is supported by real life experiences and examples of improvement in conversational intelligence leading to success in achieving some business or personal goal.

I am not sure it could help anybody, but it is an interesting reading for communicationally challenged individuals like me.