Difficult Conversations: Level 2

Building: The Competent Communicator

Say the Hard Thing with Clarity and Care.

Are you or your team avoiding uncomfortable conversations or struggling to get your point across without raising defensiveness? Constructive communication isn't about avoiding conflict, it's about addressing routine friction with behaviour-based candour and mutual respect. Across 8 practical workshops, learners will move from passive listening to clear expression, mastering how to state observations without blame, connect issues to work impacts, set clear boundaries, give usable feedback, and reset conversations when heat rises.

Leader-Led & Ready-to-Run: Designed for internal leaders to facilitate easily, every workshop guide includes complete step-by-step scripts, activities, and resources needed to run the session.

Best for: Individual contributors, team members, and emerging managers looking to handle routine feedback, unmet expectations, and workplace disagreements with confidence.

Key Takeaway: You’ll gain a practical, step-by-step toolkit to express candour respectfully, navigate rising tension, and turn competing positions into shared work problems.

The 8-Workshop Journey:

• Say What You Observed: Express issues clearly using behaviour-based candour rather than labels, assumptions, or character judgments.

• Share Impact and Needs: Explain why an issue matters by connecting observed behaviour directly to work impact, standards, and boundaries.

• Make Requests and Boundaries Clear: Ask for specific change, distinguish preferences from non-negotiable requirements, and test feasibility.

• Give Useful Developmental Feedback: Deliver routine workplace feedback that is specific, behaviour-focused, future-relevant, and actionable.

• Receive Feedback with Curiosity: Hear difficult input without automatic defensiveness by pausing, clarifying, and sorting signal from noise.

• Read the Room and Adapt: Adjust pace, tone, detail, or channel in real time based on interpersonal and situational cues.

• Reset When Heat Rises: De-escalate defensiveness and reopen problem-solving by naming tension, pausing, and restating core purpose.

• Turn Positions into a Shared Problem: Reframe competing positions into a jointly owned work problem that can be solved together.