Handling difficult conversations

- effective skills for managers, team leaders & supervisors

- one day, in-house training for 6 - 16 participants

In all organisations people hold different viewpoints, reach different conclusions and want to take contrary actions.  Disagreements are an inevitable and healthy part of organisational life.  They indicate that there is more than one solution to the problem, more than one way forward.  They are therefore potentially creative, positive and constructive.

Talking about our disagreements is the most effective way of trying to resolve them.  If we find it hard to talk about them, the ensuing conversation is likely to be difficult.  How we handle those conversations often determines whether the outcome is constructive or destructive, positive or negative, one step forward or two steps back.

This one day course provides managers, team leaders and supervisors with an opportunity to develop effective skills and techniques in holding conversations that deal effectively with difficult issues and maintain healthy working relationships.  It will help to transform difficult conversations into an opportunity to build relationships, to get the best out of the people we lead and manage - and to get the best out of ourselves.  It's not about dealing with difficult people, but dealing with difficult behaviours.

Specific outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants will be better able to:

• Bring structure and purpose to difficult conversations at work
• Work with underlying interests as well as positions that people take up
• Identify different responses to conflict - incuding their own
• Respond to feelings as well as facts, using effective listening skills
• Raise difficult issues effectively and with confidence
• Use a practical method of mapping out different aspects of difficult issues
• Engage colleagues in collaborative approaches to problem solving