Difficult Conversations
A one-day training transforming teams’ abilities to handle tension, politics and uncertainty when the stakes are high and momentum really matters.
People rarely seek out difficult conversations. But no one can lead well if they cannot, or will not, have them.
Nothing costs your business more than the conversations no one is willing to start.
Difficult conversations a barrier to progress?
A powerful experience for leaders and teams in complex, high-stakes organisations, where conversations are either too safe or too dangerous, and it's undermining progress on important issues.
If your team are:
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Spending time and energy navigating sensitivities instead of moving work forward
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Managing tension indirectly instead of addressing it clearly
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Seeing unresolved issues resurface again and again
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Watching small side issues turn into hidden problems
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Struggling to say what needs to be said without damaging trust
Then this is for you.
THE FRAMEWORK
Structured, not improvised
7 Barriers
See the pattern before you're in it
The seven critical barriers that keep great people avoiding conversations that can move things. Once named, they're much easier to overcome.
6 Practices
Walk in with a plan, not a hope
The disciplines and preparation moves that make difficult conversations survivable, productive and repeatable. Planning for tension before it arrives in the room.
16 Tactics
The exact words that hold the line
Tested approaches from both academia and the real world for when temperatures rise. What to say to restore professional grounding, without turning up the heat or backing down from the truth.
The MuchClearer approach to difficult conversations draws on conflict resolution work, well-researched academic theory, tested negotiation training and years and years of practice.
“People actually wanted to be in the room. It felt like progress, not politics.”
Team Lead, Global Manufacturing Firm
TRUSTED BY
Sean is Founder of MuchClearer, with 20 years of battle-tested tools, templates, stories and scars from leadership roles across technology, creative and government enterprises. He supports leaders at HP, Google, Capgemini, PwC, SUSE, the NHS and Knight Frank on transformation, sales, strategy and conflict.
Sarah is Managing Partner at Machine and Folk, an experienced C-suite leader, non-executive director and investor with deep expertise in digital transformation, product strategy and innovation.
Sarah and Sean partner on Difficult Conversations to bring both leadership craft and enterprise transformation experience into the room. The toolkits they share are used by teams at enterprises like Amex, Hewlett Packard, BT, Chanel and L’Oréal.