Safeguard Your AI Investment with Crucial Conversations
Safeguard Your AI Investment with Crucial Conversations
Research •
30 sec
The Evidence
Behind Our Work
We draw on established social science, ongoing research, and decades of work with organizations to understand the human patterns that shape how people respond and work together.
Grounded in Research.
Tested in the Real World.
No single study can explain what happens across every team, workplace, or organization. That’s why we look at evidence from several angles.
RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS
Explore the established theories and studies of social science that inform the principles behind our solutions.
CLIENT EVIDENCE
Explore specific examples of what organizations report after applying our soluions to real business challenges.
OBSERVED PATTERNS
See what our surveys reveal about recurring workplace challenges and how respondents experience them.
CRUCIAL LEARNING RESEARCH INDEX
Our solutions draw from decades of scholarship across behavioral and social science. The Crucial Learning Research Index provides a curated guide to research relevant to the principles and approaches found throughout our learning experiences.
Explore the academic foundations, theories, and studies connected to how people communicate, follow through, influence behavior, manage work, adapt to change, and navigate relationships.
EVIDENCE FROM
THE WORKPLACE
Oklahoma State University Center for Health Science used Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue to address issues of patient safety, job satisfaction, and stress management. Researchers at the university report:
“Findings from our study show a statistically significant difference between pre-Crucial Conversations training and post-Crucial Conversations training in the areas of teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition, perceptions of management, and working conditions.”
MEASURABLE IMPACT
When conflict threatened to bring work to a standstill—and lead to a costly legal grievance—a Veterans Administration team put SDI insights into practice. The intervention helped the team rebuild productive working relationships, rescind the grievance, and avoid an estimated $340,000 in costs.
Turn Insight
into Action
The research reveals what drives lasting behavior change. The next step is applying those insights to the challenges in your organization.
Connect with a client advisor to explore where behavior change could have the greatest impact.
MAKE BEHAVIOR CHANGE LAST
Changing behavior takes more than clear expectations. Habits, social norms, incentives, systems, and working conditions all shape what people actually do.
Our research examines the forces that make change stick, and what leaders can do to create new behaviors that last.
EXPLORE MORE RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
Continue exploring research, studies, and analysis related to the workplace challenges we help solve. Browse insights on how people respond when commitments slip, behavior needs to change, relationship dynamics create friction, and more.
Featured
19 Resources
Safeguard Your AI Investment with Crucial Conversations
Research shows organizations where people hold Crucial Conversations are more effective at adopting new technology, like AI. That’s because organizations built on cultures of dialogue and accountability are behaviorally agile – they have the capacity to adapt to change. See how Crucial Conversations…
Silence Kills 2.0
Silence Kills 2.0
Research •
6 mins
Silence Kills 2.0
A follow-up 20 years after the seminal Silence Kills study, this latest report asks if patterns of silence have improved, if silence still kills, and whether cultures of communication affect how quickly and effectively organizations adopt new evidence-based discoveries. The study shows if leaders can create…
Financial Breakup
Financial Breakup
Research •
6 mins
Financial Breakup
The financial services industry has entered an era of mature markets, complex regulation, and intense competitive pressure. Customers have
more choices than ever before, and their loyalty to a credit union, bank, credit card company, insurance company, accountancy company,
consumer finance company, stock…
Connection Is Retention
Connection Is Retention
Research •
20 mins
Connection Is Retention
Crucial Learning and The American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) surveyed 1,559 nurse managers and 562 clinical staff to identify what contributes to nursing turnover and retention. We found that nurse managers who are skilled at creating a culture of connection have nurses that are 81% more…
Speak Up or Burn Out
Speak Up or Burn Out
Research •
19 mins
Speak Up or Burn Out
The best way to fight the creeping depersonalization and pessimism that underlie burnout is to take active steps to address and resolve the problems that threaten to consume us. This path begins with investing the time and effort to hold five Crucial Conversations. In our research, we learned that teachers…
Emotional Inequality
Emotional Inequality
Research •
38 mins
Emotional Inequality
Speaking forcefully creates a social backlash. That backlash is amplified for women. If not managed well, this phenomenon can adversely affect an individual’s career and can prove costly to an organization’s effectiveness. The implications of the findings in this report can empower individuals and…
Silent Treatment
Silent Treatment
Research •
54 mins
Silent Treatment
Every day, healthcare professionals make calculated decisions to not speak up—even when safety tools alert them to potential harm. The Silent Treatment: Why Safety Tools and Checklists Aren’t Enough to Save Lives shows that safety tools do not compensate for communication failures in the hospital
Silence Kills
Silence Kills
Research •
36 mins
Silence Kills
While 84% of doctors and nurses have seen coworkers take dangerous shortcuts, fewer than 10% voice their concerns. Silence Kills: The Seven Crucial Conversations in Healthcare finds that cultures of dialogue lead to significant reductions in medical errors, increased patient safety, higher productivity, and…
Crucial Moments in Healthcare
Crucial Moments in Healthcare
Research •
15 mins
Crucial Moments in Healthcare
While team drama is frustrating, our study Crucial Moments in Healthcare finds that the real problem is silence. How well or poorly employees speak up and address five behavior challenges predicts outcomes like patient safety, quality of care, quality of patient and family experience, and staff engagement.
Silence Fails
Silence Fails
Research •
23 mins
Silence Fails
Senior executives frequently bet their companies on high-stakes efforts like major product releases, strategic IT projects, organizational restructurings, fast-paced downsizings, or aggressive quality initiatives. And these bets rarely pay off as anticipated. This study suggests that leaders can…
Silent Danger
Silent Danger
Research •
23 mins
Silent Danger
This study probes below the surface by looking for unsafe conditions that are broadly recognized yet allowed to continue because of cultural norms and social taboos. The ugly secret behind most workplace injuries is that someone is aware of the threat well in advance, but is either unwilling or unable to…
How to 10x Your Influence
How to 10x Your Influence
Research •
35 mins
How to 10x Your Influence
There is no magic-bullet solution to changing human behavior. There are, however, six sources of influence that drive our behavior and anyone with the ability to make change successful is adept at employing these sources in combination. Research shows, successful influencers increased their chances of…
Financial Agility
Financial Agility
Research •
26 mins
Financial Agility
Crucial Learning surveyed more than 2,000 managers and executives from more than 400 different companies to learn what it takes to be financially agile. The results were remarkable. We found four moments that happen in every organization that predict with incredible precision how well and how fast an…
Managing Tech Teams
Managing Tech Teams
Research •
37 mins
Managing Tech Teams
We surveyed 3,500 tech employees and interviewed middle and senior tech managers to identify the challenges prevalent in tech today—and how leaders can address them.
Solving the Transfer Problem
Solving the Transfer Problem
Research •
24 mins
Solving the Transfer Problem
Human Side of Change
Human Side of Change
Research •
3 mins
Human Side of Change
When it comes to change, one thing is for certain: humans will resist. But despite such widespread resistance, some change initiatives enjoy incredible success. What sets them apart? Crucial Learning compared the strategies of companies who succeeded at change with those whose initiatives failed miserably….
Eliminating Cultures of Silence
Eliminating Cultures of Silence
Research •
4 mins
Eliminating Cultures of Silence
Could corporate scandals such as those at Boeing and Theranos have been easily avoided? The answer, sadly, is yes. Before each disaster, stakeholders saw clear warning signs of catastrophe, and yet they said nothing. Trends show that similar cultures of silence proliferate in organizations across the…
Culture 2.0- Leveraging Culture for Breakthrough Results
Culture 2.0- Leveraging Culture for Breakthrough Results
Research •
5 mins
Culture 2.0- Leveraging Culture for Breakthrough Results
The speed of innovation, the diversity of customers, the global market for talent, and the values of a younger workforce all demand different ways of working. In the past, leaders built organizations that nurtured obedience and compliance. Today’s marketplace and workforce requires a very different…
Corporate Depression
Corporate Depression
Research •
15 mins
Corporate Depression
The vast majority of leaders put their companies’ futures at risk when their sole focus is visible perils like shaky capital markets, uncertain cash flow, and nervous customers. As they take measures to respond to these external threats, they fail to apprehend the more profound danger lurking below the…