Ever had to have an awkward conversation with a member of staff?
Managers often dread such confrontations.
“James, there have been a few complaints lately about the way you interact with certain members of staff…”
“Aneesha, there’s a, um, problem with your, er, what shall we say, dress code?”
Often managers put off dealing with such situations. But even when they do go ahead, they can be embarrassed, ill-prepared or anxious about upsetting the member of staff.
Northgate’s Difficult Conversations™ Training Activity is designed to overcome such problems and alleviate stress. It gives participants practice at considering potentially difficult situations and planning how to deal with them logically, unemotionally and professionally,
It is not a role play though the pack does include an optional role play for Trainers who like that format.
The main activity consists of profiles of two staff each with a different issue. Crucially with both profiles different teams are given the SAME information about the issue but with a different photo attached. So one team has an image of one person in mind while the other team has the identical situation but with a different image. An ideal way to introduce the concept of unconscious bias and how to avoid it.
- A questionnaire kicks off the session, asking teams to think about what they understand is meant by the term ‘difficult’ conversations.
- This is followed by teams studying the first profile. Teams use a Planning Form to plan how the conversation might be structured. This is reviewed and compared before a handout of Key Points is issued and studied.
- The second profile is then analysed in the same way. Here teams are more focused, and adept having learned a lot from their first attempt.
- Full Trainer’s Notes cover details on using the activity as well as listing the key learning to be extracted.
Say goodbye to embarrassing confrontations!!
Some Key Lessons
- Don’t be frightened of ‘difficult’ conversations.
- Decide what the main isuse is (and any subsidiary issues).
- Write down your objective(s) (the end point) for the conversation.
- Get some hard facts and evidence about the issue.
- Don’t make assumptions; stay open-minded.
- Make sure there is agreement on the outcome and the next step.
Find out more and order online here.
