The solution could be so much simpler than you think.
If things aren't going quite as well as they could be, before you go back to the drawing board on a new strategy or structure, consider this:
Did your last strategy reset or restructure deliver the results you expected?
A team that can navigate difficult conversations, without harming relationships, has an unfair head start.
There's still a feeling that uncensored emotions make a good song. They don't. Pure emotion is just somebody screaming at you, or crying. It doesn't communicate anything.
- David Byrne
Interview with Chris Dahlen, pitchfork.com. July 17, 2006.
Organisational friction can usually be traced back to a single capability gap:
You've built a team that reflects the value you place on diversity, but communication between individuals and groups with different world views, or different ways of the processing the world, is ineffective so that value goes unrealised.
You have an open door leadership policy, but your people are reluctant to cross the threshold for fear of repurcussions, so your leaders exist in a bubble detached from reality.
You have invested in formal sales, or negotiation, or leadership (etc.) training, but when under pressure your people revert to their old bad habits, rendering that investment in training ineffective.
You consistently and proactively review your strategy and you communicate it to your people, but your leaders never truly commit, so leadership meetings are wasted fighting for 'my fair share' rather than progressing the things that best serve the strategy.
You've done the sales training, you have a great product that meets your customer's needs, but when the pressure comes on you find yourself making concessions you had no intention of making.
You are committed to the concept of continuous improvement, it might even be one of your company values, but because your people don't have the skills or confidence to raise or resolve important issues (e.g. people, processes, entire teams), those issues are worked around rather than worked through.
You have sales or delivery teams with deep customer relationships and insight, but because those same people don't believe they will be listened to, that insight remains locked away. Opportunities are missed because the people closest to the action won't speak up.
On the surface these symptoms may present as problems with your strategy or structure. Below the surface, the root cause is more often a conversation problem.
Or, more accurately, a difficult conversation avoidance problem.
This is a skill gap, not a personality flaw. Just like driving a car, navigating difficult conversations can be learned
I need people to throw things back and question my opinions and premise of life. It makes me really respond.
- David Bowie
Interview Magazine, Jane Gayduk, January 10, 2018
How we help you remove the friction, for good.
Navigating Difficult Conversations
More than just a workshop
Because we know that the value of any professional development should be measured by the long-term capability lift it delivers, we include additional one-to-one coaching for all participants as they prepare to put what they have learned into practice.
Could this be right for your team?
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It's 30 minutes with Richard to talk through your needs, and explore whether Reqlarity can help.
We're perfectly okay with difficult conversations. So, if we're not right for each other, there will be no hard feelings.
Clarity builds Confidence drives Momentum.
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Email: contact@reqlarity.co
Phone: +64 (0)27 498-1394
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