Product Description

The authors of the New York Times bestseller Crucial Conversations show you how to achieve personal, team, and organizational success by healing broken promises, resolving violated expectations, and influencing good behavior

Discover skills to resolve touchy, controversial, and complex issues at work and at home--now available in this follow-up to the internationally popular Crucial Conversations.

Behind the problems that routinely plague organizations and families, you'll find individuals who are either unwilling or unable to deal with failed promises. Others have broken rules, missed deadlines, failed to live up to commitments, or just plain behaved badly--and nobody steps up to the issue. Or they do, but do a lousy job and create a whole new set of problems. Accountability suffers and new problems spring up. New research demonstrates that these disappointments aren't just irritating, they're costly--sapping organizational performance by twenty to fifty percent and accounting for up to ninety percent of divorces.

Crucial Confrontations teaches skills drawn from 10,000 hours of real-life observations to increase confidence in facing issues like:

• An employee speaks to you in an insulting tone that crosses the line between sarcasm and insubordination. Now what?
• Your boss just committed you to a deadline you know you can't meet--and not-so-subtly hinted he doesn't want to hear complaints about it.
• Your son walks through the door sporting colorful new body art that raises your blood pressure by forty points. Speak now, pay later.
• An accountant wonders how to step up to a client who is violating the law. Can you spell unemployment?
• Family members fret over how to tell granddad that he should no longer drive his car. This is going to get ugly.
• A nurse worries about what to say to an abusive physician. She quickly remembers "how things work around here" and decides not to say anything.

Everyone knows how to run for cover, or if adequately provoked, step up to these confrontations in a way that causes a real ruckus. That we have down pat. Crucial Confrontations teaches you how to deal with violated expectations in a way that solves the problem at hand, and doesn't harm the relationship--and in fact, even strengthens it.

Crucial Confrontations borrows from twenty years of research involving two groups. More than 25,000 people helped the authors identify those who were most influential during crucial confrontations. They spent 10,000 hours watching these people, documented what they saw, and then trained and tested with more than 300,000 people. Second, they measured the impact of crucial confrontations improvements on organizational and team performance--the results were immediate and sustainable: twenty to fifty percent improvements in measurable performance.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1462 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 284 pages

Download Description

The authors of the New York Times bestseller Crucial Conversations show you how to achieve personal, team, and organizational success by healing broken promises, resolving violated expectations, and influencing bad behavior

Discover skills to resolve touchy, controversial, and complex issues at work and at home--now available in this follow-up to the internationally popular Crucial Conversations.

Behind the problems that routinely plague organizations and families, youll find individuals who are either unwilling or unable to deal with failed promises. Others have broken rules, missed deadlines, failed to live up to commitments, or just plain behaved badly--and nobody steps up to the issue. Or they do, but do a lousy job and create a whole new set of problems. Accountability suffers and new problems spring up. New research demonstrates that these disappointments aren't just irritating, they're costly--sapping organizational performance by...'

From the Inside Flap
"...revolutionary ideas...opportunities for breakthrough..." -- Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"...unleash the true potential of a relationship or organization and move it to the next level...."-- Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and The Secret: What Great Leaders Know--and Do

"... the most recommended and most effective resource in my library."-- Stacey Allerton Firth, Vice President, Human Resources, Ford of Canada

"...brilliant strategies for those difficult discussions at home and in the workplace..."--Soledad O'Brien, cohost of CNN's Morning Edition

"This book is the real deal....Read it, underline it, learn from it. It's a gem."-- Mike Murray, VP Human Resources and Administration, Microsoft (retired)

NEVER WALK AWAY FROM ANOTHER TOUCHY, CONTROVERSIAL, OR COMPLEX ISSUE--AT WORK OR AT HOME!

Behind the problems that routinely plague families, teams, and organizations are individuals who either can't or won't deal with failed promises. Others have broken rules, missed deadlines, or just plain behaved badly. If anybody steps up to the issue, they often do a lousy job and create a whole new set of problems.

New research demonstrates that these disappointments aren't just irritating. They're costly—sapping organizational performance by 20-50 percent and accounting for up to 90 percent of divorces.

Crucial Confrontations teaches skills drawn from over 20,000 hours of real-life observations to increase confidence in facing tough issues. Learn to:

Permanently resolve failed promises and missed deadlines

Transform broken rules and bad behaviors into productive accountability

Strengthen relationships while solving problems

When you learn how to handle crucial confrontations, everything gets better.

From the Back Cover

"Hey, if you read only one 'management' book this decade...I'd insist that it be Crucial Confrontations."--from the foreword by TOM PETERS

"Revolutionary ideas...opportunities for breakthrough..." -- STEPHEN R. COVEY, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"...unleash the true potential of a relationship or organization and move it to the next level...."-- KEN BLANCHARD, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and The Secret: What Great Leaders Know--and Do

"The most recommended and most effective resource in my library."-- STACEY ALLERTON FIRTH, Vice President, Human Resources, Ford of Canada

"Brilliant strategies for those difficult discussions at home and in the workplace..."--SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, cohost of CNN's Morning Edition

"This book is the real deal....Read it, underline it, learn from it. It's a gem."-- MIKE MURRAY, VP Human Resources and Administration, Microsoft (retired)

NEVER WALK AWAY FROM ANOTHER TOUCHY, CONTROVERSIAL, OR COMPLEX ISSUE--AT WORK OR AT HOME!

Behind the problems that routinely plague families, teams, and organizations are individuals who either can't or won't deal with failed promises. Others have broken rules, missed deadlines, or just plain behaved badly. If anybody steps up to the issue, they often do a lousy job and create a whole new set of problems.

New research demonstrates that these disappointments aren't just irritating--they're costly--sapping organizational performance by 20 to 50 percent and accounting for up to 90 percent of divorces. Drawn from over 10,000 hours of real-life observations, Crucial Confrontations teaches skills to increase confidence in facing tough issues. Learn to:

• Permanently resolve failed promises and missed deadlines
• Transform broken rules and bad behaviors into productive accountability
• Strengthen relationships while solving problems

---

Customer Reviews

Still using these teachings
I forgot I read this book until I saw it on my list. The teachings are memorable and I am still using them on a daily basis. I am also still giving people advice from this book. Excellent for managers and supervisors. I was making many common mistakes and this book helped put me in the right direction. It is rare for me to remember the in-depth content of books, but this one is well written and has helped me greatly.

The first half is a must-read.
The first half of this book was excellent. Part I was titled "Work on me first". Under it was Chapter 2 "Master my stories: How to get your head right before opening your mouth". It talks about the stories we tell ourselves to explain what is happening around us. These stories can have a profound influence on your life. Negative stories tend to become self fulfilling prophesies. I'd heard about these stories in a talk. The speaker asked us not to share what we had learned. So I was pleased to see it in another source. The second half of the book I suspect was written by another author. Perhaps if I'd been practicing their suggestions it wouldn't have felt like formula writing. That said, I would still recommend this book to anyone who feels uncomfortable confronting people around them even when it is necessary.

Crucial Confrontation
The book provides an excellent methodology for addressing issues in both my business and private life. I thought it very helpful with completing my performance reviews for both high and low performers.