Each year we begin anew with commitments for improved health, strengthened relationships, better behaviors, increased skills—new habits. Some realize those resolutions, but for many (if not most), the goals never materialize. It may seem like you’re setting the same New Year’s resolutions year after year. Lose weight becomes lose more weight or lose weight again. Get fit in 2022 turns into get fit next year in 2023. Sort out the junk in your shed transitions to sort out the junk in your life.

I’ve taken a different approach.

Let’s pause for a moment and reflect upon all the hard work you’ve done and amazing things you’ve accomplished in 2023!

Can teaching crucial skills create a ripple effect that changes generations? For Russell Virgin, that beautiful concept is reality.

When Nicole O’Brien got certified to teach Crucial Conversations in June 2011, she planned to teach the course to General Services Administration (GSA) employees throughout the Midwest. But after a reorganization transferred her team to the central office in Washington, D.C., O’Brien and her now-retired teammate Nancy Smith lobbied to make the course available to all of GSA’s 12,000 employees throughout the United States and its territories.

Our most successful clients are those who start by getting clear on the results they want, identify the behaviors that will generate those results, and then employ crucial skills to change behavior and bring about those results. We refer to this as B–>R, or behavior to results.

Of all the content Katrina Greene gets to teach in her role as director of leadership and organizational development for Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Influencer Training® has long been her favorite. Her passion for the course is palpable.

Recently I had the beautiful opportunity to be in the same room with more than 25 other master trainers—an opportunity we haven’t had since 2019. I had been looking forward to seeing everyone, meeting some people in person for the first time, and learning together.

Learning partners are a critical part of Crucial Learning’s course design. A vital step toward the end of the process is working with beta testers to use the new material in the classroom, helping us to get the course just right. When it came time to test Crucial Influence, we invited Jeremy King at the …

As many of you know, on Tuesday we’ll launch a new version of our Influencer course, now called Crucial Influence. The materials, the videos, and the instructional design all have a new look, but the changes go deeper than style. During the development, I spent many hours diving into the most credible social science research …

Laura Larsen describes her job as “administrative assistant turned global trainer.” When hired by Juniper Systems in 2019, Laura was tasked with getting certified to facilitate Crucial Conversations and then training every full-time employee in the course. Since then, the scope of her role has expanded on two fronts.