"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."
First Session: Monday, March 31st, 2025
Every Monday at 4 PT / 5 MT / 6 CT / 7 ET
We will begin an inspiring 6-week journey through the book, “Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When Stakes Are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler.
Crucial Conversations helps us to learn the skills needed to navigate the high stakes, emotionally charged discussions where opinions differ, by creating a safe space for open dialogue, focusing on building mutual understanding, and mastering communication skills to achieve positive outcomes in important relationships, both personal and professional.
Defining a Crucial Conversation:
A conversation with high stakes, varied opinions, and strong emotions where the outcome significantly impacts the relationship involved.
Creating a Safe Environment:
Establishing mutual purpose and ensuring both parties feel respected and heard is crucial for productive dialogue.
Mastering Communication Skills:
"Start with Heart": Approaching the conversation with genuine care and understanding the other person's perspective.
"Look": Observing nonverbal cues and actively listening to fully grasp the other person's message.
"State your Path": Clearly communicating your thoughts, feelings, and needs.
"Explore Others' Path": Actively seeking to understand the other person's viewpoint and concerns.
Managing Emotions:
Recognizing and managing your own emotions to avoid escalating conflict.
Addressing Silence and Violence:
Identifying when someone is withdrawing from the conversation or becoming aggressive and using techniques to bring them back into dialogue.
Overall, Crucial Conversations emphasizes the power of effective communication in navigating challenging situations, building stronger relationships, and achieving positive outcomes in high-stakes conversations.
Looking forward to seeing you!
About This Book
-
Though we are not good at Crucial Conversations, our ability to engage in them determines the quality of our relationships and the performance of our organizations.
"You can measure the health of relationships, teams, and organizations by measuring the lag time between when problems are identified and when they are resolved."
According to the authors, you can predict with 90% accuracy whether a project will fail based on whether the people engaged in the project can hold relevant crucial conversations. Can they speak up if they are understaffed? Can they signal that the schedule is unrealistic?
Crucial Conversations make or break companies.
In the worst companies managers don't have the courage to hold crucial conversations with bad performers. They rather ignore them and transfer them within the organization.
In good companies, everyone is accountable for their decisions. Managers take care of bad performers which is better for the organization and for the individual as well.
Crucial Conversations start with people finding a way to get all the relevant information out in the open in a respective way.
In the book, there is the story of a CEO who presents a plan to move some facilities of the company to a remote location. The plan does not make any sense but it looks like no one wants to share this, since the CEO proposed the change. But one leader speaks up, he shares how much he values the work of the CEO, but he also shares his concerns on whether the CEO wants to move the facilities to this remote location because it is closer to his hometown. The CEO takes it to his heart, but after thinking it through thanks the leader for pointing this out and backs off.
But how do we start engaging in Crucial Conversations?
First, we should think before we speak.
-
Learning and growing together is such a beautiful way for women to collaborate and support each other. The skill of entering into Crucial Conversations would be beneficial for any relationships from spouses, children, extended family, work, ministires, etc. There are so many reasons why we might need to engage in conversations where the stakes are high, and learning to be comfortable with this skill is key to allowing us the freedom to engage in them.
-
· How to handle difficult conversations
Learn how to have productive conversations when stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions are strong
· How to create alignment
Learn how to foster open dialogue around risky topics to create agreement and alignment
· How to focus on mutual purpose
Learn how to identify and articulate a shared goal that aligns with everyone's interests
· How to explore differing viewpoints
Learn how to acknowledge and explore different perspectives
How to apply these skills
The book's method can help you resolve conflict.
STATE stands for: Share your facts, Tell your story, Ask for the other's paths, Talk tentatively, and Encourage testing.
Crucial conversations can happen at home or in the workplace. Mishandled or ignored, they can lead to strained relationships and poor results.
-
No! The Rising Tide Fellowship has at least one book club happening year-round. We all want to read more and grow, but we need some accountability and fun!
The Rising Tide Fellowship has created a space for women to read new books together and slowly implement what we've learned each week.
We also keep the replays of each session of each book, so if you missed it, you can go back and see the replay!
-
Where Can I Buy It?
Love our Book Club!
Love our Book Club!
Jacki Cobb is a Certified Wholeness Coach and Strategist. She is the founder of Women of W.O.W. Worth Coaching, and an affiliate coach through The Woman School. She empowers women, esepcially working moms and moms of teens, to live more fully alive and thriving while also working to enjoy a life of peace, freedom, and joy. She helps them find their purpose through coaching with love, truth, and accountability.
Join her on Monday evenings in January by using the button below!
Rising Tide Fellowship Member
“I cannot adequately express how this book club has changed the way I think.”
Rising Tide Fellowship Member