Most of us could offer a guess as to what a “crucial conversation”  might look like.  We can also likely recall some of these conversations  we initiated or have stumbled into – often with less than stellar results!

Crucial Conversations is the title of a book co-authored by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan & Al Switzler.  They define a crucial conversation as one where stakes are high, emotions run strong, and opinions vary. Their signature statement is “if you feel stuck — in a relationship, in your career, at home — chances are a crucial conversation is keeping you there”.

Training Course:  Tools for Talking When Stakes are High:  

Crucial Conversations is also offered as a training course, developed by Vital Smarts, which teaches skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics throughout all levels of an organization. Skillsets covered include learning how to speak and be heard (and encouraging others to do the same), in order to begin to surface the best ideas, make the highest-quality decisions, and then act on decisions with unity and commitment.

What Makes This Training Program Successful?

There are three concepts that make the training engaging and allow for participants to build the skill to handle these conversations well.

1.  Hands-on skill-building: participants learn a new skill, apply the skill via practice, and receive helpful feedback in order to get better.
2.  Videos  which show the correct, near miss and disastrous results for situations in order to learn from the success and failure of others.
3.  Follow up tools to support the transfer of skill from the classroom to the office.

HR is Certified to Offer Crucial Conversations Training!

HR can partner with your team or organization to deliver this one day training course.  There is a cost associated with the training and we are happy to visit with you about this and investigate the most effective way meet your needs.

What Changes Can You Expect After Your Team Has Completed the Training?

With crucial conversations skills, you’ll be able to:

• prepare for high-stakes situations
• transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue
• make it safe to talk about almost anything
• be persuasive, not abrasive
• improve nearly every professional and personal relationship
• yield professional improvements in areas like productivity, quality, safety, diversity, and change management.

Interested? Email us at DevelopU@smu.edu.

Learn about additional resources available to you on our Managing Through Change webpage.

The SMU Managers Blog provides timely and relevant information to support managers in their roles.
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