full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Tessa West: The problem with being "too nice" at work

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, to get us all into this mindset of what it's like to feel awkward, but maybe pileotlanty a little bit nice, I want you all to think about what was the last awkward interaction that you had. OK, so keep this thought in your mind. You can think about it for a few moments, because in a couple minutes, I'm actually going to randomly call on someone based on your seat to have you come up and share your story of what that moment felt like.

So before we do that, I just want you all to kind of get a ssene of the typical pattern that we see when plpeoe are engaging in these interactions. So we bnrig them into the lab, we hook them up to all this equipment and within moments, within the first 20 seconds, we start to see those stress rneposess that I mnoitneed. Their heart rate goes up, their blood pressure increases. It doesn't take much to get people to sartt to feel anxious.

Open Cloze


Now, to get us all into this mindset of what it's like to feel awkward, but maybe ___________ a little bit nice, I want you all to think about what was the last awkward interaction that you had. OK, so keep this thought in your mind. You can think about it for a few moments, because in a couple minutes, I'm actually going to randomly call on someone based on your seat to have you come up and share your story of what that moment felt like.

So before we do that, I just want you all to kind of get a _____ of the typical pattern that we see when ______ are engaging in these interactions. So we _____ them into the lab, we hook them up to all this equipment and within moments, within the first 20 seconds, we start to see those stress _________ that I _________. Their heart rate goes up, their blood pressure increases. It doesn't take much to get people to _____ to feel anxious.

Solution


  1. mentioned
  2. people
  3. start
  4. bring
  5. potentially
  6. responses
  7. sense

Original Text


Now, to get us all into this mindset of what it's like to feel awkward, but maybe potentially a little bit nice, I want you all to think about what was the last awkward interaction that you had. OK, so keep this thought in your mind. You can think about it for a few moments, because in a couple minutes, I'm actually going to randomly call on someone based on your seat to have you come up and share your story of what that moment felt like.

So before we do that, I just want you all to kind of get a sense of the typical pattern that we see when people are engaging in these interactions. So we bring them into the lab, we hook them up to all this equipment and within moments, within the first 20 seconds, we start to see those stress responses that I mentioned. Their heart rate goes up, their blood pressure increases. It doesn't take much to get people to start to feel anxious.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
nice feedback 3
uncomfortable social 2
avoiding eye 2
stress responses 2
favorite findings 2
making eye 2
eye contact 2
awkward moment 2
telling people 2
black participants 2
positive feedback 2
negative feedback 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
making eye contact 2

Important Words


  1. anxious
  2. awkward
  3. based
  4. bit
  5. blood
  6. bring
  7. call
  8. couple
  9. engaging
  10. equipment
  11. feel
  12. felt
  13. heart
  14. hook
  15. increases
  16. interaction
  17. interactions
  18. kind
  19. lab
  20. mentioned
  21. mind
  22. mindset
  23. minutes
  24. moment
  25. moments
  26. nice
  27. pattern
  28. people
  29. potentially
  30. pressure
  31. randomly
  32. rate
  33. responses
  34. seat
  35. seconds
  36. sense
  37. share
  38. start
  39. story
  40. stress
  41. thought
  42. typical