The conversations your team avoid are a handbrake on your progress.
It doesn't mean you have to agree with the person you're disagreeing with, but you start to understand their perspective.
You already feel something is off. Decisions are made but they just don't stick. Performance issues drag on for months before they're addressed, if at all. Meetings produce agreements that are conveniently forgotten or ignored. Your people are experienced and capable, yet somehow reluctant to address the hard issues.
Every avoided conversation becomes a tax on your business. It shows up in your culture, your execution, and your results.
Most of us were never taught how to have a direct conversation without damaging relationships. So we soften, defer, or avoid, and the problems compound.
This is not a character flaw. It is simply a skill gap.
The Navigating Difficult Conversations workshop is designed for capable teams and individuals who know they are capable of more effective communication, and who are serious about personal and professional growth.
The good news: Skills can be learned
MORE GOOD NEWS
Until now, the Navigating Difficult Conversations workshop has been exclusively available to leadership team cohorts.
This is all about to change as we open up public workshops to individuals keen to develop the fundamental and, we believe, most impactful life and leadership skill: Navigating Difficult Conversations.
Events are being scheduled at locations throughout New Zealand.
See here for indicative dates and locations, and to register for updates.
Topics we cover include:
Why we avoid difficult conversations. The psychological and social mechanisms that make avoidance feel rational, and why they are more costly than the conversation itself.
What makes a conversation difficult. How to read the specific conditions that raise the stakes: high emotion, power imbalance, conflicting interests, and prior history between the parties.
How to prepare without over-scripting. A practical method for getting clear on what you actually want from a conversation before you walk in, and what you are willing to accept.
The stories we tell ourselves. How to separate facts from fiction, and how to reframe the stories that trigger our unhelpful emotions.
Opening without causing defensiveness. How to raise a difficult issue directly without putting the other person in a position where they feel they have to defend themselves before they've heard you.
The power of curiosity. How to stay curious long enough to really understand the other persons point of view.
Finding shared purpose. How to shift the conversation from you against me, to us against the problem.
Resisting the false binary. How to resolve the issue AND preserve, or even strengthen, interpersonal relationships.
Conversations in diverse teams. The importance of considering cultural, generational, and neurodiverse experiences.
Staying in the conversation when it gets hard. Techniques for managing your own and the other person's reaction in real time, when the conversation goes somewhere you didn't expect.
Listening under pressure. How to hear what someone is actually saying when emotion, defensiveness, or conflict is present, and how to respond to what you heard rather than what you feared.
Reaching a clear outcome. How to close a difficult conversation with a clear agreement, and defined actions.
The workshop runs over a full day. Participants work on their real conversations, not fictitious scenarios. The content is structured around the situations that cause the most friction within leadership groups and the people they lead.
Before the workshop we interview all participants individually. This means we can tune the content to meet the groups most pressing needs, and ensures everyone arrives to make the most of the day.
After the workshop we offer all participants a free one on one coaching session to help them prepare for their next difficult conversation - we do this because we know that if new skills aren't used within three weeks, they're usually lost forever.
By the end of the day, each participant will have:
Worked through their own examples of difficult conversations in order to understand their unique challenges.
An understanding of their personal triggers and behavioural tendencies when under stress.
A completed conversation plan for a real difficult conversation they will have within three weeks.
Practised the techniques taught in the room, so they're prepared to confidently apply them in a real-world situation.
A shared language with colleagues so difficult and productive conversations become a normal part of how the team operates.
Not a sit back and passively observe seminar.
We spend just enough time on the science and communication theory to understand what happens when we avoid or engage in difficult conversations. However, the emphasis is on the practical tools that can be used immediately. This is not an academic lecture.
- Nick Cave
Clash Magazine, interview, 2023.
I start off in one position, and end up somewhere completely different, and that is through the power of conversation.
Curious?
Book 30 minutes with Richard.
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Either complete and submit the contact form, or simply book a call for a time that suits.
Clarity builds Confidence drives Momentum.
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Email: contact@reqlarity.co
Phone: +64 (0)27 498-1394
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