It might seem like conversations are no big deal.

it’s nice when they go well, and just business-as-usual-when they don’t.

But crucial conversations are *essential* for creating joy and reducing burnout. Talking about the hard, things, and doing it well, eliminates obstacles, smooths the path to success, enables people to collaborate, and increases trust and open-ness by calming the nervous system.

“Twenty years of research involving more than 100,000 people reveals that the key skill of effective leaders, team mates, parents, and loved ones is the capacity to skillfully address emotionally and politically risky issues. Period.” (Crucial Conversations, pp 9-10)

Here’s some of the research showing how organizations benefit when teams are skilled at crucial conversations:

1. Respond five times faster to financial downturns – and make budget adjustments far more intelligently than less-skilled peers.
2. Are ⅔ more likely to avoid injury and death due to unsafe conditions.
3. Save over $1500 and an eight-hour workday for every crucial conversation employees hold rather than avoid.
4. Substantially increase trust and reduce transaction time in virtual work teams.
5. Influence change in colleagues who are bullying, conniving, dishonest, or incompetent.

In this episode I’m focusing on #3: saving money and time by having crucial conversations instead of avoiding them. 

With all that saved time, you and your team can focus on the things that really matter: your morale, inner work life, trust, and well-being. All the things that contribute to making work feel joyful. 

Recommended reading and other resources

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High

Take our course: Conversations That Count: The Essential Skills You Need to Lead #LikeABoss

Crucial Skills for Teams: the crucial conversations websited

Crucial Conversations-related episodes

The following episodes share ideas for incorporating conversation and dialogue skills into your leadership to build trust and boost team morale:

episode 37: Inclusion: Stage 1 of Psychological Safety

episode 35: The Secret to Joy at Work

episode 25: Park Your Ego