ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, “Consensus” is just a buzzword in our organization. We talk about making consensus decisions, but what really happens is that after everyone has shared input to the pool of …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Al Switzler is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, I have a coworker who is extremely overwhelmed by her workload. However, she is offered help periodically and always seems to find a reason why that help won’t work. …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kerry Patterson is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, Any advice for those of us caught in the role of “moderator” (willing or not) of a crucial conversation? Both as a manager of a team of high performing …

Dear Crucial Skills, Yesterday I led a discussion on crucial conversations with my ten-member corporate and public affairs team. When we examined everyone’s “Style Under Stress,” eight out of ten of my teammates discovered they go to silence. Do these results indicate a big concern for us because there is not an equal distribution of …

Dear Crucial Skills, I work in a situation where we have a reputation for being ‘nice’ to employees and not having crucial conversations when needed. This leads to inconsistent messages, inconsistent productivity and our missing of several key goals. Which do you think would be better to try first; a roll out of Crucial Conversations …

Dear Crucial Skills, I often run into a brick wall when trying to have a crucial conversation with workaholics. It seems as if they will work with you only if it increases their power or they can exercise control over you. What can I do to get some cooperation? Signed, Frustrated coworker Dear Frustrated, Thank …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kerry Patterson is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, After initiating a crucial conversation effort, how do you evaluate outcome of the effort? What objective outcome assessment do you utilize? Signed, Curious Dear Curious, Over the years, we’ve …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ron McMillan is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, I was excited to work with my new boss initially because I thought he would have good interpersonal skills and would be good at managing people. However, it has …

Dear Crucial Skills, In Crucial Conversations and Influencer you note studies that correlate changes in behavior to increases in productivity and/or profitability. I will be going through Crucial Conversations trainer certification in January and would like to know how we can measure the impact of the classes after they are performed. What are some of …

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, I’m currently taking Crucial Conversations Training at work. It has helped me both at home and at work by giving me the confidence to take quite a few bulls …