{"id":872,"date":"2017-11-19T23:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T23:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dongpingzhang.com\/?p=872"},"modified":"2017-11-29T03:05:28","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T03:05:28","slug":"crucial-conversations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dongpingzhang.com\/?p=872","title":{"rendered":"Crucial Conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My book of this week is <\/span>Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. <\/span><\/i>It is coauthored by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler. I first browsed this book some years ago, either in the Waterstones branch I frequented or the Imperial College London Central Library. My memory fails me on the exact occasion and why I did not pick it up at the time. This autumn, its appearance on the recommended reading list for Conflict Management finally triggered me to read it. Now having read it properly, it is fair for me to state that any reader regardless of the amount life and work experience you have would find values in it and benefit from applying the techniques during dialogues when they turn crucial. <\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years, it puzzles me that some people are naturally much better at having delicate and good conversations, while others tend to blow up any critical conversations such that they need help to unwind from the unnecessary mess before moving the dialogue forward. It is trivial for any of us to come up with such examples based on our experience. The wonderful news is that we can all learn to be good at having delicate and critical conversations. We can train ourselves to do so, guided by books like this one. <\/span><\/p>\n

As a side note, I think that investing in green space in campus helps to improve the quality of collaboration, increase the productivity, prevent and resolve conflicts. When a conversation reaches a deadlock, pause before it causes too much damage, take a break, and walk in nature first. Having reachable natural areas makes this easier.<\/span><\/p>\n

This book presents the seven principles for crucial conversations and the skills we can develop corresponding to each principle. To make it less abstract and more applicable, the book consists of numerous cases and example sentences to use. It also lists various crucial questions to ask ourselves when we are trying to apply a principle. Here are the set of tools to use, quoting from the book. <\/span><\/p>\n