“Talking a Good Game” as recommended by Rick Hein

Dear Colleagues:

It was a distinct honour and my personal privilege to greet each of you in attendance at the 2014 the International Law Firms World Conference in London this past weekend. To those of you who were unable to go to London, I take this opportunity to send you my best personal regards.

Many thanks indeed to our hosts, Cubism Law – and especially to Andrew Pena and William Stockler – for their warm hospitality and for having created a remarkable series of engaging seminars on legal marketing, international networking and substantive law issues which I trust will result in even greater professional development and business opportunities by and among our members.

Also deserving of particular praise were the social functions on Friday and Saturday evenings, and their incredible venues (the lovely Grange St. Paul’s Hotel and the truly impressive and historic Lincoln’s Inn across the street from the Royal Courts of Justice). These types of events are vital to an organisation such as ours, providing the quintessential social lubrication for the strengthening of the personal and professional ties that bind us, and facilitating deeper cross-cultural awareness, understanding and communication conducive to more fruitful referral relationships.

With this in mind, and as I mentioned to some of you in London, a short, informative, entertaining and inexpensive book (Kindle: U$S3.99; Paperback: U$S 9.97) released last year entitled “Talking a Good Game” explains the prevalence in American English of sports terminology and analogies and their increased infiltration in the business culture in the United States. Understanding American English is one of the first challenges that foreign nationals encounter in the U.S. corporate culture because American business conversation is riddled with sports references and expressions. Without that knowledge, business and social opportunities are lost or wasted by non-Americans (and non-sports fans) who work with or for Americans simply because they don’t know how to take advantage of sports talk to build strong relationships. “Talking A Good Game” guides the reader through American sports and sports culture and offers a mix of must-know information about all major American spectator sports and teaches some common sense communications techniques for using sports to make valuable business connections and social contacts, too. For those of you with American clients, the information contained in this book could complement well your legal knowhow and expertise.

For those of you who may have clients doing business with Americans or in the United States, this book could serve as a thoughtful gift meant for their edification insofar as it may serve to improve their knowledge of some of the peculiarities of American business culture and consequently their acumen in dealing with Americans. It is available at amazon.com.

Indeed, a similar book on Commonwealth sports terminology and analogies would have benefitted me this weekend given that one of the presenters used the terms “final furlong” and something like “being on your own wicket” — the first being a reference to horse racing and the second to cricket (which I hasten to add, sadly, is not played in the U.S.) — neither of which I had ever heard and the meaning of which was therefore somewhat lost on me.

As it were, the author of this book happens to be my neighbor who lives across the street from me in Saint Louis. Allison Hawk Collinger (http://ahcconsulting.org/About_Us.html and @TalkinAGoodGame) is an award-winning public relations professional whose background, training, contacts, education and experience make her a leading authority on effective personal communication in business dealings in the U.S. She previously served as the Director of Corporate Communications and Community Outreach for the Saint Louis Rams (Professional American Football NFL Team), and while at Fleishman-Hillard, Inc. she twice won the International Association of Business Communicators Award.

To those of you wondering: I receive no commission on any sales of this book or for recommending it, nor is this a solicitation. Rather, it is a pure and wholly altruistic attempt simultaneously to assist my brethren counsel and my neighbor to grow their respective businesses. I trust Allison’s book may be of some utility to you and/or your clients. Please feel free to contact me or Allison Hawk Collinger (via Twitter @AHawkCollinger or via LinkedIn) should you have any questions regarding the matters herein, and I look forward to seeing you again at the next opportunity and to continuing to strengthen our bonds of collegiality and affinity.

With best wishes, I remain

Very truly yours,

Richard B. Hein