Whenever you’re not getting the results you want, it’s likely an important conversation either hasn’t happened or hasn’t been handled well. We call these Crucial Conversations—discussions between two or more people where the stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong.

When conversations turn crucial, people tend to follow one of two ineffective paths: they either speak directly and abrasively to get the results they want but harm relationships, or they remain silent with the hope of preserving relationships only to sacrifice results.

But with the right set of skills people can step into disagreement—rather than over or around it—and turn disagreement into dialogue for improved relationships and results. And our research shows that both individual and organizational success are largely determined by how quickly, directly, and effectively we speak up when it matters most. At the heart of healthy and high-performance organizations are people willing and able to hold Crucial Conversations.

In this engaging session, participants will learn the research-based, time-tested dialogue skills used by more than five million book readers and one million training graduates. You’ll learn how to:

• Handle tough, risky, or sensitive conversations honestly and respectfully.
• Foster alignment, agreement, and safety around high-stakes issues.
• Speak up to anyone, at any time, about nearly anything.

THE SEVEN CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS FOR HEALTHCARE

Silence in healthcare is deadly. Studies have shown that one-third of hospital-based adverse events are attributed to human error; about two-thirds of those arise from ineffective team communication. Another study showed approximately 98,000 hospital deaths per year were associated with miscommunication.

And yet, every day, healthcare professionals make calculated decisions to not speak up. In fact, Crucial Learning research found that 84 percent of doctors and nurses have seen coworkers take dangerous shortcuts, but fewer than one in ten voice their concerns.

The study, Silence Kills: The Seven Crucial Conversations for Healthcare, conducted by Crucial Learning, in conjunction with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, links people’s ability to discuss emotionally and politically risky topics in a healthcare setting with key results such as:

• Patient safety
• Quality of care
• Nursing turnover

The study suggests that creating a culture where healthcare workers speak up before problems occur is a vital part of saving lives. Learn to step up to these seven Crucial Conversations and drastically transform your healthcare organization.

Crucial Learning’s research shows issues of diversity and inclusion are especially likely to become undiscussable because the stakes are so high. So instead of speaking up, they keep their concerns to themselves or discuss them in hushed tones.

But equitable cultures are rooted in transparency and dialogue. When you can identify the undiscussables, then you can expose the injustice. Holding the Crucial Conversation is the first step to resolving issues of inequity and disrespect before they become harmful patterns and cultural norms.

And while Crucial Conversations skills can inoculate against injustice by enabling people to speak up to anyone at any time about any concern, it’s also about laying the foundations for inclusivity through mutual respect and mutual purpose.

The central tenet of Crucial Conversations is that there is a pool of shared meaning, and the aim of dialogue is to invite and allow everyone to contribute to it. In other words, regardless of race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, political viewpoint, ability, or experience, everybody gets a seat at the table.

Based on David Allen’s New York Times bestseller, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, this presentation teaches you and your employees how to better manage tools, requests, and expectations to improve focus and productivity while reducing stress and burnout. The skills from Getting Things Done® have been shown to relieve cognitive load, improve focus, even contribute to effortless performance, or what is popularly called “flow.”

Following this presentation, participants will be able to:

• Clear their mind of mental clutter by doing a Mind Sweep.

• Begin developing a trusted system for incoming to-dos and requests, using just a few capture tools.

• Assess their current habits and methods for managing tasks, assess whether they help or hinder productivity and focus, and revise them accordingly.

HOW TO LEAD RAPID, SUSTAINABLE CHANGE

Change efforts fail when leaders narrowly look for a single cause behind their persistent problems and then try to implement quick-fix solutions.

On the other hand, influencers succeed because they understand that most problems are fed not by a single cause, but by a conspiracy of causes. They merge multiple sources of influence into a strategy that can overpower even the most persistent and resistant problems.

In a recent study published in MIT Sloan Management Review, Crucial Learning researchers found that those who combine all Six Sources of Influence are ten times more likely to succeed at producing substantial and sustainable change. These results held true across areas of:

• C-Level concerns—bureaucratic infighting, silo thinking, and lack of accountability.
• Corporate change initiatives—internal restructurings, quality and productivity improvements, new product launches.
• Personal challenges—overeating, smoking, overspending.

Learn a step-by-step strategy for exponentially increasing your power to change your greatest and most persistent challenges.

Managing performance is more than a process – it’s about people. Effective performance management isn’t done with software and tools. It’s accomplished by respectfully addressing your people’s behavior routinely and consistently. It’s about candidly coaching through challenges and holding people accountable for lapses in behavior. It’s about identifying goals, fast-tracking careers, and in the process, improving your people and your bottom line.

These are dialogue skills—the difficult kind that may not come naturally, but when learned, mean the difference between managing people and managing process.

In this engaging speech, participants will learn how to hold people accountable in a way that improves performance without compromising relationships. They’ll learn how to:

• Diagnose the Underlying Cause. Identify the underlying cause behind every problem using a six-source model of possible influences.

• Make It Motivating. Motivate others without resorting to threats or power and instead, search for and explain natural consequences of noncompliance.

• Make It Easy. Involve others in coming up with a solution to their ability barriers.

• Manage Projects Without Taking Over. Help others avoid excuses, keep projects on track, and resolve performance barriers.