For those following my reading history might see that continuous learning remains one of my things that informs my selection of books upon occasion. A title that came to my attention in the last 10-days of my term as the Club Growth Director for a local district of Toastmasters International, and a book with tremendous potential if I can take the messages of it to heart, is the book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. For the three-weeks since that day, color me changed and hopeful regarding benefits I am already seeing from applying lessons I’ve taken from the book.
(Four business speakers wrote Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. From left are Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler and Ron McMillan).
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler and Ron McMillan, each featured with All American Speakers Bureau biographies, wrote Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. The book itself is divided into 12 chapters each focused on sharing specific skills that can be practiced, refined, and applied through intentional effort to become a better listener, facilitator, and human being in encouraging people to feel safe in bringing about productive and meaningful conversations using a broad spectrum of techniques.
(“Crucial conversations take place when stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run high.” The book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High includes this definition in the book’s first chapter).
A full definition of a crucial conversation is offered in the first of twelve chapters in Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. The definition also includes possible ways of responding, with improvement methods being the point of the introductory and eleven chapters that follow.
“A crucial conversation is a discussion between two or more people where stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. When we face crucial conversations, we can do one of three things: We can avoid them, we can face them and handle them poorly, or we can face them and handle them well.”
At the current point in time, I have taken some very clear notes about actions to take and points of emphasis through the first read that I have had. I was able to apply some approaches included in those 12 chapters in some home improvement projects that took flight over the last week, specifically in the space of having conversations in a way that communicated safety in speaking up for other members in the critical dialogue. The improvement in this dynamic, in the short term, has been a result of practicing techniques from the book.
(Jami Breese sketch of the larger messages of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High).
A closing thought that brought the message of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High home for me included the messages around getting unstuck through dialogue that is candid and respectful, getting into the notion of content, pattern and relationship, and specific ways to engage being more emotionally present with healthy motives, calmness and safety for all participants. Many of the techniques take continued practice, including the recognition for when a conversation is a crucial conversation. Returning to individual chapters for refreshers and reminders about specific approaches and continued growth through application will be ways I continue to use this book.
I rate Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler and Ron McMillan at 4.5-stars on a scale of one-to-five.
Matt – Saturday, July 11, 2020
Matt Lynn Digital 