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702 reviews for:
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
Ron McMillan, Kerry Patterson, Al Switzler, Joseph Grenny
3.92 AVERAGE
702 reviews for:
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
Ron McMillan, Kerry Patterson, Al Switzler, Joseph Grenny
3.92 AVERAGE
Truly one of the most practical and brilliant business books, and this from someone who loathes the average "New York Times best-selling business book!". This book offers deep insights into the human psyche around relationships and interactions, communications and relating to one another and the world of things that can go wrong - that does go wrong - on a daily basis. It applies to your relationship with your boss, business colleagues, partner, spouse, co-worker, friends, and your entire ecosystem. If you want something, you need to be able to communicate it. If you don't want something, you must be able to say it and every interaction has consequences. Do you want to keep the relationship? Do you want to be liked, trusted, loved, adored and still firm in your views? Or do you want to stay in the constant prison of power struggle, victim mindset, false stories and breakdown of communication with roller coaster of emotions?
I've already started using the tools in Crucial Conversations with my spouse. Right now, I'm happy to say that my relationship is in a very good place, but as I read the book, I reflected on years of misunderstandings and jumping to conclusions and seeing where I would often take the doomed route to nowhere, rather than the safe and smart path to a place of mutual understanding, trust and love. So I've started applying these principles and teaching my husband how to look for signs and how to communicate to me when he feels unsafe or unhappy in a conversation, or as the authors put it, when "dialogue" stops, because when you step out of dialogue, all breaks down, so the goal is to stay in dialogue when stakes are high, when emotions are strong.
Another great tool you learn in this book is to state the mutual purpose and draw from that to bring yourself and the other person to the same side. As you begin the process, you can create safety and trust by doing this very early on.
If you believe that communication is at the heart of getting things done, building relationships, creating an impact, as I do, then this is one of the BEST books on communication when stakes are high, and if you are able to have a powerful crucial conversation, if you can train yourself to do this with the help of the amazing techniques in this book, then you have a rare gift that helps you in all areas of life.
I've started recommending this book and even sending it to my clients, and teaching the principles in my coaching sessions. It is even worth a re-read. Highly recommended.
I've already started using the tools in Crucial Conversations with my spouse. Right now, I'm happy to say that my relationship is in a very good place, but as I read the book, I reflected on years of misunderstandings and jumping to conclusions and seeing where I would often take the doomed route to nowhere, rather than the safe and smart path to a place of mutual understanding, trust and love. So I've started applying these principles and teaching my husband how to look for signs and how to communicate to me when he feels unsafe or unhappy in a conversation, or as the authors put it, when "dialogue" stops, because when you step out of dialogue, all breaks down, so the goal is to stay in dialogue when stakes are high, when emotions are strong.
Another great tool you learn in this book is to state the mutual purpose and draw from that to bring yourself and the other person to the same side. As you begin the process, you can create safety and trust by doing this very early on.
If you believe that communication is at the heart of getting things done, building relationships, creating an impact, as I do, then this is one of the BEST books on communication when stakes are high, and if you are able to have a powerful crucial conversation, if you can train yourself to do this with the help of the amazing techniques in this book, then you have a rare gift that helps you in all areas of life.
I've started recommending this book and even sending it to my clients, and teaching the principles in my coaching sessions. It is even worth a re-read. Highly recommended.
I feel like I need to read this 12 more times, because it's just stuffed with good content that I'm sure I skimmed some important lessons! Really glad to have read this.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I found this to be a helpful book in learning to navigate difficult conversations. I read some reviews criticizing the causal claims made in the book that weren't supported by causal empirical evidence but instead by a few correlative anecdotes. This criticism is fair, and yet I found the book to contain helpful and encouraging insights in general. Unfortunately, my perception is that this is a broad issue with business books and studies. I especially appreciated the encouragement to face difficult conversations head-on with little delay (reducing lag time was a main theme) and with an attitude of curiosity. The principles in the book seem to apply best to the workplace environment, although the authors often mentioned examples outside the workplace. While I believe the principles are broadly helpful, I feel the claims of their generalization were overstated. To be fair the authors did mention that if safety is an immediate concern that must be resolved before applying these conversation principles. In keeping with the business tradition, the book is filled with acronyms, which I assume are intended as mnemonic devices, but I can't imagine I'll be able to remember what each letter of CURE, STATE, and the handful of others means in my day-to-day interactions. Overall, I found the book to be well-written and easy to read, filled with helpful examples, and I appreciate the principles put forth for navigating crucial conversations. I would recommend reading this book.
Really good points on how to have tough conversations. A lot I already knew from past school courses and from experience. It helped me to break things down into steps and gave a different perspectives on how to approach conversations so an end goal can be met vs. continuing to hash out topics I thought had been resolved.
I hope to internalize everything in this book. The conversations that aren’t easy are often the most important and this book gives so many ideas on how better to approach them to actually get somewhere. It was also a surprisingly easy read
Great information in this book. I just feel the some of the concepts are overexplained to an extreme degree. However, it was enjoyable for the most part and I learned a lot about dealing with conflict.
informative
slow-paced
Very helpful framework. Also, very repetitive.
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced
The #1 thing I continue to get out of this book is "stick to the facts" and don't try to connect the dots in your head. It's been a valuable piece of advice throughout many aspects of my life.
After reading this book I have read other, similar books and they all start sounding the same. Do I like this one so much because I read it first? Not sure. But I still like it.
After reading this book I have read other, similar books and they all start sounding the same. Do I like this one so much because I read it first? Not sure. But I still like it.