Whitepaper Looks at Crucial Conversations & SOCIAL STYLE

The book Crucial Conversations has struck a chord with many people. The authors give advice about how to turn potentially disastrous conversations into successes. A crucial conversation is one where stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong.

In such conversations it is almost inevitable that at least one person will go into Backup Behavior. The book discusses a very similar concept called “style under stress,” and this is really the basis upon which the book builds by providing advice for engaging in crucial conversations.

TRACOM has written a whitepaper that shows how SOCIAL STYLE & Versatility complements and enhances the Crucial Conversations model. In particular we describe how an understanding of Style contributes to managing difficult conversations in a way that is more likely to lead to positive outcomes. We discuss how practicing Versatility can lessen the occurrence of these types of conversations in the first place, and how Style and Versatility can be used during the much more common everyday variety of conversations.