A Model for Crucial Conversations

If you recognize this house, you were probably alive by the early 70s or you love history, particularly Cold War history. This is the house in Iceland where the Reykjavik Summit took place. Here, President Ronald Reagan and Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev had crucial conversations that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War — an outcome that has improved the quality of life on our planet like few others in history.

What about crucial conversations with less gravity for world history, but very important in your life or business?

In a “Learning Lab” (our learning & development program at the time at YP.com’s Digital HQ in Glendale, CA) as part of our management training, the following great pointers were given for crucial conversations (see best selling book which these reminded me of):

1. Discuss the immediate issue directly. Describe the behavior at issue unambiguously.
2. Focus on the business impact and the burden the issue places on others in the team.
3. Specify your expectations and the change needed.
4. Offer internal options to ease or help solve the issue in the immediate work context.
5. Suggest external options available to help or solve the issue more holistically.
6. Document the discussion and share your notes (if this becomes an HR issue, having written record of the conversation with a time-stamp may become crucial.)
7. Follow-up on the issue to review progress and ensure the implemented solution stays on track.

This list can become a model for any crucial conversation (up, down, or side-ways in your organization) where a specific issue needs to be addressed and guided towards a positive win-win outcome.

Here’s to ending, or better, avoiding a “cold-war” in your sphere of influence.

Photo Credit: Höfði by BeeFortyTwo, used under cc by sa.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.