Navigating Difficult Conversations Virtual Program
Delivered on your desktop or mobile device …
Live and interactive
Small groups to maximise your learning
All sessions hosted by an experienced facilitator
What’s included:
Five 2-hour sessions using the free Zoom video app
All workbooks and support resources
12 month access to facilitated follow-up sessions
Choose Your Stories, Change Your Life eBook.
Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash
Like a real workshop, you will be able to ask questions and discuss what you learn with an experienced facilitator and work with other participants in virtual break-out groups. This is so much more than a one-way Webinar - it is far more powerful and experiential and involves practical application between sessions to hone your skills.
We include free access to follow-up sessions for a 12-month period once you complete all five workshop sessions.
In-house options
We can run this virtual program for your organisation, for your teams, or one-on-one development.
We can also deliver it face-to-face if that is your preference.
How it works
We understand you are probably busy so we want to give you the maximum flexibility. We have broken the workshop into five 2-hour sessions you can do from home or work.
In each workshop session you will:
Explore the science behind the art of having difficult conversations
Learn the practical processes necessary to ensure more successful conversations
Practice applying the processes in pairs and small groups
Plan actions you will take between sessions
Deepen your understanding through collective debriefing and exploration
Resources are provided to support you. You will also receive a free eBook copy of Choose Your Stories, Change Your Life by John Sautelle.
Session 2 - Getting Curious About Their Stories
The focus of this session is on ways we can approach understanding the other person’s experience before we go into a difficult conversation.
Topics include:
How to adopt multiple perspectives (self, other and observer) to gain more ideas about what else could be going on so we have more to work with in the conversation
Unconscious biases that come into play
Simple steps to defuse reactivity when survival circuits are activated in the other person
Session 1 - Understanding My Experience
This session provides a practical framework we can use to better understand how we create our experience and how that drives our actions.
Topics include:
What the research is saying about how we create our experience
Dr Gervase Bushe’s “Experience Cube” © and how to apply it
Session 4 - Conducting Clear Conversations
This session brings together the skills and frameworks covered in Sessions 1-3 and focuses on preparing for, and managing, difficult conversations.
Topics include:
A step-by-step guide on how to plan an effective “clear” conversation
How to invite the person into the conversation while reducing the chances of triggering a defensive reaction
Practical steps to manage the conversation
How to get agreement on the actions each person will take and what needs to happen to maintain the relationship.
Session 3 - Managing Defensiveness
This session builds on and deepens the work carried out in sessions one and two. The focus then shifts to one of the key factors that make conversations difficult - how we respond when something is said or done that triggers strong defensive reactions.
Topics include:
Understanding the survival circuits in our brain and how they get activated
How common story “triggers” related to Identity, Seeking, Certainty, Autonomy, Relationship and Equity create reactivity and what to do about it
Session 5 - Follow-up and Support - free to repeat for 12 months
Everyone’s situation will be different and there will inevitably be questions about applying the skills you have developed. This session provides an opportunity to ask questions and work through some fine-tunes as you prepare for your real conversation or as a follow-up after you hold your conversation.
As part of the program package you will have 12-months access to repeat this follow-up session in which you can share your challenges and learning and receive ongoing support to apply the skills and frameworks covered in the program. We will run these sessions periodically. You must have completed all 5 workshop sessions to qualify.
“The “Navigating Difficult Conversations” workshop gave me insights and tools to better conduct conversations when the stakes are high.”
“The Navigating Difficult Conversations course has enabled me to have more of the challenging conversations than in the past, out of fear or anxiety I might have avoided. Having these conversations has helped develop greater self-awareness and understanding of what might be going on for the other, thereby enabling me to drop some of the unhelpful stories I might have had about them or myself. As a result, I have noticed how my relationships with those I have had these conversations with have deepened and how this has allowed for greater inner peace and connectedness in my life.”