Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler & Emily Gregory
The book that revolutionised business communications has been updated for today’s communication challenges. Crucial Conversations provides powerful skills to ensure every conversation – especially difficult ones – leads to the results you want. Written in an engaging and witty style, it teaches readers how to be persuasive rather than abrasive, how to get back to productive dialogue when others blow up or clam up, and it offers powerful skills for mastering high-stakes conversations, regardless of the topic or person.
This new edition addresses issues that have arisen in recent years. You’ll learn how to:
- Respond when someone initiates a crucial conversation with you.
- Identify and address the lag time between identifying a problem and discussing it.
- Communicate more effectively across digital mediums.
When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a Crucial Conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation poorly and suffer the consequences; or apply the lessons and strategies of Crucial Conversations and improve relationships and results.
Whether they take place at work or at home, with your co-workers or your spouse, Crucial Conversations have a profound impact on your career, your happiness, and your future. With the skills you learn in this book, you’ll never have to worry about the outcome of a Crucial Conversation again.
Review
Crucial Conversations delivers an indispensable framework for navigating high-stakes discussions, whether renegotiating contracts, addressing performance gaps, or salvaging at-risk accounts. The authors’ “shared pool of meaning” concept transformed how my team handles objections, replacing defensive reactions with genuine curiosity.
We implemented their “STATE” method (Share facts, Tell your story, Ask for others’ paths, Talk tentatively, Encourage testing) during a tense client renewal. By focusing on mutual purpose (“We both want this partnership to succeed”), we uncovered the real budget concerns behind their resistance and co-created a flexible pricing solution. Deal saved. Their “silence to violence” scale also helps us diagnose unspoken hesitations earlier in the sales cycle.
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