Human Resources Staff Education & Career Development
Supervisor & Non-Supervisor Courses
Crucial Conversations
- Duration: Two 7 1/2-hour sessions
- Days: Wednesdays
- Dates: March 4 & March 11, 2009
- Time: 9:00am - 4:30pm
- Location: Winnett Lounge
- Instructor: April White Castañeda
- Click here to register, or call x3204
- Return to Course Catalog
A Two-Day Facilitated Workshop
Do Any of These Situations Sound Familiar?
- When setting goals, your boss gives unreasonable targets but no one dares question them. Later, when the team falls short of the plan, everyone shrugs and says, “I knew we’d never make it.”
- Your teenage daughter violates her curfew – again. When you reprimand her, she lashes out that you’re too strict and overbearing. You simply wanted to communicate a concern for her safety but now your relationship is damaged.
- Your boss rarely acknowledges your comments in meetings, doesn’t return your phone calls, and fails to relay vital information. There’s no way you’d surface the issue because doing so would just make you look even more pathetic.
We Need to Talk
If you feel stuck—in a relationship, in your career, at home, wherever—chances are a crucial conversation is keeping you there. This New York Times bestseller introduces you to the skills you need to handle crucial conversations – conversations that occur when the stakes are high, emotions run strong, and opinions vary.
- Determine your personal managerial style
- Understand different employee styles
- Use behavioral styles to help you supervise
- Assess what others need from you
Enhance Accountability, Improve Performance, and Ensure Execution
Every individual, team, and organization faces disappointment. A coworker misses a deadline, a boss fails to live up to an expectation or a direct report just plain behaves badly. People make promises, break them—and then bad things happen.
For over two decades, VitalSmarts researchers have studied top performers—those who achieve the results their employers value most. To no one’s surprise, our research showed people who are valued the most:
- Are talented at holding others accountable.
- Speak up when others let them down, no matter the other person's power, position, or temperament.
- Step up to problems, solve them, and improve relationships.
In short, we discovered that when you teach everyone how to routinely employ the crucial skills previously demonstrated only by top performers, your whole world changes.
With Crucial Conversation Skills, You'll be Able to...
- Prepare for high-stakes situations with a proven technique
- Transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue
- Make it safe to talk about almost anything
- Be persuasive, not abrasive
- Improve nearly every professional and personal relationship
Yield major professional improvements in areas like productivity, quality, safety, diversity, and change management.
About the Training
- Focus: Teach the skills that lead to individual, team, and organizational effectiveness.
- 14 hours of classroom time
- 120 original video clips and examples of situations managed both poorly and well.
- Expert descriptions of key concepts to explain theory
- Frequent role plays
- Intense class participation
- Personal reflection, planning, and commitment
- Participant Materials: Participant toolkit, action planner, contact cards, model cards, copy of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High Behavior, Crucial Conversations Audio CD companion, Crucial Skills Newsletter, Follow-up tools
Course Fee
While there is no fee for registration and class instruction, there is a $250 course materials charge for the series. You will be asked to supply a PTA number or personal check upon registration.
Cancellation Policy
Due to the limited class size, your PTA will be charged $300 if you cancel your registration without at least 72-hour advanced notice prior to the start of the series.