Crucial Conversations®

GRA are proud to be an approved Licencee of VitalSmarts^TM for Crucial Conversations® training.

For current dates for UK public training programmes on Crucial Conversations, click here.

"These skills…enabled us to win the largest contract in our industry’s history.”   Dain Hancock Former President Lockheed Martin Aeronautics

How does a Crucial Conversation differ from a ‘normal’ conversation?

From childhood, each of us has learned from our parents and other role models, ways of communicating which, we hope, will effectively enable us to achieve our goals.  Over time and with much practice, these familiar ways of interacting with others are reinforced and become both natural and comfortable.  However when faced with a situation which we perceive as stressful, our normal considered response can be replaced by an ‘angry’ or ‘silent’ reaction and effective dialogue can become non existent.  This is often the time when you need get involved in a Crucial Conversation.

A Crucial Conversation is one where:

• stakes are high
• opinions differ
• emotions are running strong

These conversations are not limited to global leaders, politicians or those negotiating world peace. Every single one of us has the potential to have a Crucial Conversation every day - and we can either avoid them, face them and handle them poorly, or face them and handle them well. The bad news is that because of the way we humans are designed (for ‘flight or fight’), when we need to be at our best, we are often at our worse, and fail to handle these conversation well, if at all.

Are you facing a Crucial Conversation?

• A colleague is constantly trying to win you over to his views through high-energy debate tactics. You merely want to discuss issues calmly and professionally. You don't want to be strong-armed or hyped. What do you say?
• Your boss has a leadership style that is smothering you. You hesitate to speak up.
• People who report to you aren't sharing their differing opinions. You're being cut off from essential information and as a result your most important initiatives are eroding. Why don't people just speak up?
• Important issues are not brought up in a timely manner to those who can do something about them. Only those near the water cooler hear the problems.
• You find yourself disagreeing with your boss and yet you are nodding like a nodding dog. The last person who disagreed was "shot on sight."
• One of your employees sits quietly during key concept discussions, disagrees with many of the ideas, says nothing, and then complains to you off-line. When you brought it up with her, she said it's not safe to be honest.
• Infighting rules as people from different shifts, departments, specialties, and cultures turn diversity into hostility and debate rather than collaboration and synergy.
• Your Project Director has announced a project schedule that you know is completely unrealistic, and refuses to acknowledge your concerns.  How can you make them listen?

If you recognise some of these, or need to address some ‘home’ issues, such as speaking to your teenage son about a ‘teenage’ problem, or raising an topic with your spouse that has been bothering you for years…..then learning the skills of Crucial Conversations will have a dramatic effect on your life.

Crucial Skills^TM

The skills of Crucial Conversations allow you to talk openly and honestly to anyone about almost anything, resolve the problem, and at the same time build the relationship with that person for mutual benefit. Those who have mastered the skills:

If you are directly involved with projects or cross-functional initiatives and programmes, then you may be interested in "Silence Fails: The Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution", which identifies the five communication problems that are far more common than most senior leaders realise - and which cause 85% of projects to fail.

Click here for details of the training programme content and outcomes.

Click here for further details of public training programmes in your area, or contact us on 01962 779911 / 22.