Present
Human Communication at Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is getting very good at a great many things. Being human with another human being is not one of them.
Published 2026 by SBA Publishing.
Paperback:
ISBN 978-1-0666082-0-1.
Hardback:
ISBN: 978-1-0666082-1-8
Also avaiable as an Ebook
What can I do that software cannot?
That is the professional question of the next decade. And the answer, when you look at it clearly, is the work that happens between people.Trust built over time. Influence rooted in genuine understanding. The capacity to read a room. The ability to challenge with care, to ask the question that opens rather than closes, to have the conversation that needs to happen rather than the one that is easy.These are not soft skills. They are the core competency of the modern professional. And they are entirely learnable.Present is a practical guide to building them.
Not for beginners.
Present is written for experienced professionals who are already technically skilled and want to develop the human side of how they work — leaders, managers, fundraisers, clinicians, consultants, teachers, anyone whose job runs on the quality of the conversations they have.Not for those struggling. For those who are already good and want to become something more — the version of themselves that appears fully in the conversations that matter, that builds the relationships others rely on, that has the courageous conversation rather than avoiding it.Not a different person. A more deliberate one. The gap, for most people, is smaller than they think.
Eight Waypoints
The book is built around the eight skills that make the real difference:
Emotional Capital — the trust account every working relationship runs on.
Clarity of Aim — knowing what you actually want from a conversation before you have it.
Feedback — the single most mishandled tool in professional life, and how to do it well.
Courageous Conversations — the ones that get avoided, and what avoiding them costs.
Open Questions — the discipline of curiosity over advocacy.
Storytelling — how to make an idea land, and stay landed.
Presentations — being present in the room, not just performing in it.
Making Connections — building the network that holds you up over time.
Plus chapters on how learning actually works, how to rehearse a skill so it holds under pressure, and how to stay resilient in a working life that doesn't always make it easy.
"I can think of a book no more timely than this. As we all race to understand how AI will transform, enhance and detract from our working lives, we also have this gnawing feeling that this moment is a call for humanity at work to step up too. Great work is done by humans — leading, visioning, collaborating, feeling, negotiating, listening, engaging — and yet this is work that is seldom taught; rather, it is learned by experience. Richard is the real deal in this space."
— Tess Nixon-Spiller Philanthropy & Fundraising Consultant
Available now in hardback, paperback and ebook
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