You already know something is off. Decisions get made but don't stick. Performance issues drag on for months before they're addressed, if at all. Meetings produce agreement that evaporates by the following week. Your leadership team is experienced and capable, yet reluctant to address the hard issues.

This isn't a character flaw. It's a skill gap. Most leaders were never taught how to have a direct conversation without damaging relationships or undermining their own standing. So they soften, defer, or avoid, and the problem compounds.

Every avoided conversation becomes a tax on your business. It shows up in your culture, your execution, and your results.

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 neurodivergent differences.

• 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 teams 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.

- 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.

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.

The Difficult Conversations Workshop is 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.

This workshop is for teams of capable individuals who know there is room for more productive communication, and who are serious about personal and professional growth.

The day is substantive and at times challenging. It requires self reflection, and a willingness to critically evaluate personal strengths and weaknesses, honestly and without ego.

Who it's for.

Curious?

To discuss how mapping your current strategy could benefit your team, either complete and submit the contact form, or simply book a call for a time that suits.