Mastering Critical Conversations

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Webinar Chapters

Introduction
Crucial Conversations
The Ultimate Goal of Communication
The 5 Ws (and 1H)
Elements of Communication
Key Skills for Navigating Critical Conversations
Our Emotions are Hard-Wired and Adaptive
Emotions are the Gatekeepers to Rational Thought
A 5-Step Model for Critical Communications
Use "I" Statements
De-escalating Emotion and Refocusing a Conversation

Presented by

Christa Kirby — VP of Talent Development and Global Practice Director for Management and Leadership at CEG

A licensed psychotherapist, Christa integrates her global experience as a mental health professional with her passion for holistically developing leaders and teams. For 25+ years she has designed and delivered learning experiences across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, including work in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Romania, Estonia, Ethiopia, India, and Singapore on initiatives focused on collaboration, inclusion, civil society building, and conflict resolution.

Want to go deeper?

This webinar previews concepts from our half-day course on Mastering Critical Conversations. The full course goes further into active listening techniques practiced in real-life scenarios, distinguishing functional from dysfunctional conflict, techniques to re-establish emotional equilibrium, and a five-step model for navigating critical conversations end to end — in person or virtually.

About this webinar

Most of us instinctively avoid the conversations we most need to have. Delivering bad news, naming a performance problem, surfacing an interpersonal conflict — the costs of getting these wrong are high, and the absence of a clear approach is what makes them feel so risky. The leaders who handle these conversations well aren’t braver by nature; they’ve learned a repeatable set of skills for going in prepared and staying centered when the conversation gets hard.

In this on-demand webinar, Christa Kirby walks through ways to build your critical conversation skills, including the ability to deliver bad news with clarity and directness. The skills you’ll learn apply in person as well as virtually, so you can successfully navigate sensitive situations and crucial communications wherever the work happens.

What you’ll learn

Verbal and nonverbal active listening — practice the techniques that signal to the other person they’re actually being heard, even when the conversation is hard.

Your personal response to conflict — describe where you fall along the conflict response spectrum, and how that default shapes the conversations you’re in.

Re-establishing emotional equilibrium — techniques for steadying yourself (and the other person) when the conversation gets emotionally charged.

A seven-step model for delivering bad news — a repeatable framework for delivering difficult messages with clarity and directness, instead of softening, hedging, or burying the lede.

Real-life scenario practice — apply the key skills to a critical conversation scenario you’re likely to face, so the framework isn’t just theory.

In-person and virtual application — the moves that make these skills land in a conference room and over video, where so many critical conversations now happen.

Mastering Critical Conversations

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Want to go deeper?

About this webinar

What you’ll learn

Ready to build critical conversation skills across your team?