Conducting challenging conversations around inclusion and collaboration that achieve a meaningful outcome without causing harm is an essential skill for leaders
Getting comfortable with discomfort
Without friction there is no movement
The performance of modern workplaces is helped or hindered by a variety of factors. A culture that prioritises superficial cordiality over constructive challenge is counter to everything that is known about how optimal teams function over groups of elite individuals. A culture devoid of difficult conversations creates a toxic workplace in which the avoidance of interpersonal conflict allows bad ideas and habits to flourish and allows poor performance to persist without effective feedback to shape it.
Directing difficult conversations is an essential leadership skill and we have created our Mastering Difficult Conversations workshops to address two subjects that have direct impacts on creating sustainable high-performance: inclusion and collaboration.
Mastering Difficult Conversations - Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are more important than ever in today’s global economy, affecting brand value and performance as awareness increases amongst customers, employees and shareholders.
Our Mastering Difficult Conversations workshop is designed to empower employees to tackle difficult conversations around diversity and inclusion that they may experience on a daily basis. By exploring what bias, unfairness and discrimination look like in the workplace, participants are given the tools that shape organisational behaviour by speaking out against, and asserting the necessary changes to promote a positive working environment, increasing productivity and mitigating the risks of reputational and financial damage.
Who it’s for: Senior leaders and managers
Objectives: Equip participants to navigate challenging situations while maintaining a collegial working environment by:
- Increasing awareness regarding bias, unfairness & discrimination
- Providing a flexible framework for effectively handling difficult conversations
- Promoting accountability to ensure real behavioural and cultural change
- Increasing engagement and productivity through improved communication and collaboration
- Understanding how to mitigate individual, reputational and financial damage caused by misconduct
Workshop duration: 3 hours
Mastering Difficult Conversations - Collaboration
Describing working groups in organisations as ‘teams’ is commonplace, but ignores the psychological and behvioural differences that lead to disparate performace between groups of elite individuals and highly-functioning, optimal teams.
Communication plays a major role in how well people collaborate. It can make or break performance on both an individual, and group level. Optimal teams have fulsome disclosure between colleagues, and recognise that friction is often a byproduct of progress.
Who it’s for: Senior leaders and managers
Objectives: Equip participants to direct conversations to improve collaboration by:
- Providing clarity around why leaders need to get comfortable with discomfort
- Highlight the risks of not having difficult conversations in regard to performance, reputation and financial damage
- Providing flexible framework for effectively handling difficult conversations
- Promoting accountability to ensure real behavioural and cultural change
- Increasing engagement and productivity through improved communication and collaboration
Workshop duration: 3 hours
