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dleybz 's review for:
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
by Kerry Patterson
Crucial Conversations offers a great starting point for exploring effective strategies for creating dialogue in difficult situations. While it is by no means a comprehensive text on effective communication, de-escalation, or negotiation, it does offer a lot of tools for dealing with each of these areas. The vocabulary that the authors define creates a whole language for understanding emotionally engaged, high-stakes conversations. Some specific tools, themes, or strategies that stood out to me:
•Focus on maintaining safety to maintain dialogue. If people feel threatened they will fight or freeze, reacting with "silence or violence"
•Seek a shared objective
•Start by telling your story of how you got to your conclusion, which allows the other person to follow your logic
Overall, the strategies in the book are both simple and simplistic. But oftentimes the simplest tools are the easiest to overlook and the hardest to implement. My main issue with this book is that it seems to me that the people who need it most are the least likely to read it. Still, I'd recommend this book to people who are struggling with conflicts in their personal and professional lives.
•Focus on maintaining safety to maintain dialogue. If people feel threatened they will fight or freeze, reacting with "silence or violence"
•Seek a shared objective
•Start by telling your story of how you got to your conclusion, which allows the other person to follow your logic
Overall, the strategies in the book are both simple and simplistic. But oftentimes the simplest tools are the easiest to overlook and the hardest to implement. My main issue with this book is that it seems to me that the people who need it most are the least likely to read it. Still, I'd recommend this book to people who are struggling with conflicts in their personal and professional lives.