The words “expressive” and “introvert” aren’t commonly paired together in people’s minds. In fact, they often don’t even often show up in the same sentence. “Expressive” is stereotypically associated with extroverts and stylistically associated with an animated, emotionally compelling style of communication. If we take the stereotype even further, most people think introverts are good at writing and extroverts are good at speaking. “Expressive introverts” is almost an oxymoron.

Design is one of the professions that commonly attracts introverts but requires them to be expressive and compelling – whether that be communicating their ideas, explaining their concepts, speaking up for their choices, being an advocate for their designs, negotiating with clients or recommending compelling courses of action. The future of design is dependent on expressive introverts. This talk looks at the general bias against introverted styles of communication as well as the challenges that introverts self describe in relation to expressing themselves out loud. It offers conceptual and practical solutions for reframing the whole “introvert vs. extrovert” concept so that introverts can clearly understand the merits of their communication style and learn how to leverage them advantageously. It offers practical tools to help introverts successfully self represent out into the world and teaches them not only ways to pull from their inherent natural ability but also identifies specific steps for skill elevation. This workshop is the practical offshoot of the “Expressive Introverts” talk on June 15th where concepts and ideas from the talk are put into practice. It fills the gap between understanding the concepts and being able to doing them. Since communication training is a behavioral modification practice this step is crucial in order to change the way one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others, in daily life. The workshop offers a forum where participants can try out the talk’s concepts in simple, actionable ways to help augment their inherent communication ability as well as skill up on weak, distracting or missing communication elements.