Navigating Difficult Conversations

Think about a time when you disagreed or fought with another person. What was the outcome? How did it make you feel? More likely than not, you've found yourself in disagreements that didn't get resolved or that left you with a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach. In this course, conflict resolution expert Lynne Hurdle shares her methods to ensure you're able to effectively communicate through disagreements and achieve your intended outcomes. Lynne reviews her tips and tricks to prepare yourself to participate in this conversation, effectively listen and manage your emotions, and achieve mutual understanding and agreement. She also shares how to avoid commmon pitfalls when it comes to things like venting or talking over one another. Lynne also gives examples of individuals who really excel at communication through disagreement, and what these individuals do that makes them more effective. Finally, Lynne empowers you with tips to manage disagreements and conflict more effectively, and gives her resources to help you continue your learning over time.

Tough conversations are exactly that: tough. They might involve topics that include heated opinions, arguments, or even biases. But having these conversations doesn't have to be negative, and can instead be a great way to improve your company culture. Join Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Expert Sterling de Sutter Summerville as he discusses how you can allow space to have challenging conversations within your team or organization. Sterling first reviews his tips for creating an environment that has built-in safety for all employees, then builds on this to review the elements of environments that strive for inclusion. With this foundation in place, Sterling then dives into the why conversations like this can get so heated, and what you can do during one of these conversations to maintain a safe space for all parties to express themselves. Finally, Sterling covers concepts that support safe spaces, including company culture, a sense of trust, and collective buy-in. After finishing this course, you'll be able to engage more meaningfully with those around you and help others do the same.