The 30 Minute Expert Series - Crucial Conversations ...in 30 Minutes: The Expert Guide to Kerry Pattersons Critically Acclaimed Book

INTRODUCTION

At a Glance

This book is an extended review of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, published by McGraw-Hill. In this best seller, authors Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler explain how to create meaningful dialogue that leads to productive outcomes. With years of research and thousands of testimonials, the authors explain how to develop mutual purpose and respect, create an atmosphere of safety, and explore motivations to teach you to have conversations that will improve business, relationships, and personal health.

This review begins with a brief presentation of the book and its authors. Youll learn about the inspiration for Crucial Conversations, and youll come away with an initial impression of how readers have responded to the book. Youll also meet the authors and learn a few things about their lives and work.

Next comes a short digest of readers responses to the bookthe good and the not so good, from mainstream book reviewers to bloggers and other interested readers.

The following two sections of the review offer a synopsis of the book and a detailed discussion of its key concepts. Here, youll find examples of the key concepts in practice and ideas for applying them to your own life and experience.

Finally, the main points of this review are briefly restated, in a way that may well leave you eager to get your own copy of the book and see for yourself what the buzz is all about. Also included is a list of important terms used in Crucial Conversations and recommendations for further reading about how to create powerful, nonthreatening, and persuasive dialogue that will improve the quality of your professional and personal life.

Understanding
Crucial Conversations

ABOUT THE BOOK

When the authors first began their work together, they were interested more in crucial moments than in crucial conversations. They wanted to identify the key instances when peoples behaviors and actions dramatically affected their personal and professional lives. By observing top performers, they learned that most life-changing moments occur around emotionally and politically risky interactions; thus, an individuals success depends on their ability to handle crucial conversations, when emotions are charged and stakes are high. With this discovery, the authors created Crucial Conversations, a book to teach people the skills they need to handle difficult conversations successfully and achieve maximum results.

First published in 2002, Crucial Conversations has sold more than two million copies and was on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, BusinessWeek, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. With additional research and thousands of success stories to guide them, the second edition was published in 2011, featuring readers stories, links to videos, and summaries of new findings. The book has been translated into many languages, including Hebrew and Arabic, and has been used to create meaningful discourse in areas of conflict, such as Kabul and Cairo, as well as areas of prosperity and growth, such as Boston and Bangkok. According to the VitalSmarts team, the corporate training group founded by the authors, three hundred of the companies in the Fortune 500 have used the skills taught in Crucial Conversations to master delicate situations and achieve further success.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Crucial Conversations is the result of a collaboration of expertise. In addition to this book, Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler have written three other New York Times best sellers: Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior; Influencer: The Power to Change Anything; and Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success. In 2007 the authors were named Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs Of The Year for their work with VitalSmarts, the company they cofounded in 1990 to provide corporate training and promote sustained and measurable changes in behavior. Named the 2008 Business of the Year by the Association of Learning Providers, VitalSmarts was recognized by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest-growing companies in America. Heres a bit more about each of the authors individual accomplishments.

Kerry Patterson received his doctorate from Stanford University. He cofounded Interact Performance Systems, and for ten years served as its vice president of research and development. He has taught at Brigham Young Universitys Marriott School of Management, where he received a Mentor of the Year Award and the William G. Dyer Distinguished Alumni Award for his contributions in organizational behavior.

Joseph Grenny is cofounder of California Computer Corporation. For the past thirty years, he has consulted on corporate change initiatives, meeting with leaders and executives worldwide. He has appeared on more than a hundred radio and television programs, and he writes a column on leadership for BusinessWeek.

Ron McMillan is an expert on influence and leadership, and he is highly sought after as a speaker by top-tier companies such as Disney, AT&T, and Nike. He is cofounder of the Covey Leadership Center.

Al Switzler is the former president of two consulting firms and is currently the director of training and management development at a large health care organization. He is a frequent keynote speaker at leading companies such as Lockheed Martin, Ford, and IBM and has taught at Brigham Young University, the University of Michigan, the University of Kentucky, and Auburn University.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The Upside

What a profound and timely book! Here is the cure for arguments and misunderstandings; for mediocrity and frustration. This book offers a wealth of principles and skills that will dramatically improve your career, your organization, and your relationships, writes Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Ivana Taylor, writing for Small Business Trends, proclaims the professional benefits of the book: Business owners will benefit by upgrading their conversations in a way that will eliminate fear and intimidation among their teams.... Sales and marketing professionals will learn how to put customers at ease and negotiate more profitable deals.

Many reviewers enjoy the format and style of Crucial Conversations, praising it for its simplicity and usability. Carolyn Rogers, a writer for EDWorkss Expect Success blog, finds the opportunities for self-reflection embedded within the text useful for processing the skills introduced. She also appreciates the video links provided by the authors in this second edition, which further illustrate the books principles. Jill Jensen of the Jensen Group finds it easy to relate to the real-life examples highlighted throughout the chapters and remarks on the authors great sense of humor. She also notes how helpful the many acronyms are for remembering the steps to take in high-stakes situations.

Other reviewers laud specific concepts within the book for their insight and clarity. Cherie Burbach, writing for About.com, finds the concept of contrasting extremely helpful, and praises the wisdom of owning your emotions and not using other people as an excuse for how you feel. Nathan Albright of the Edge Induced Cohesion blog remarks on the books sage advice on preserving safety and maintaining awareness of threats to meaningful and polite conversations. He also found it useful for identifying failures in his own conversational style: Reading this book, I saw a great deal of bad conversation habits I have that turn many crucial conversations into ugly verbal battles.