About Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
From the Harvard Negotiation Project—which brought you the megabestseller GETTING TO YES—this practical guide will help you handle your most difficult conversations with confidence and skill
Whether dealing with an underperforming employee or a challenging colleague, disagreeing with your spouse about money or child-rearing, negotiating with a client, or simply saying “No,” “I’m sorry,” or “I love you,” we attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day. No matter how competent we are, we all have conversations that cause anxiety and frustration.
This book can help. Based on almost thirty years of research, Difficult Conversations walks you through a step-by-step approach for how to have your toughest conversations with less stress and more success. You’ll learn how
• Decipher the underlying structure and challenge of every difficult conversation
• Raise tough issues without triggering defensiveness
• Manage strong emotions — yours and theirs
• Keep your balance no matter how the other person responds
• Get to the heart of the matter in ways that promote learning and build relationships
Filled with examples from everyday life, this third edition is thoroughly updated and addresses issues such as race, culture, gender, power, social media, and communicating via technology as we talk to one another across the world—and across worldviews. With constructive communication an ever more critical need in personal, professional, and public life, Difficult Conversations is a classic you will turn to again and again for powerful, practical advice.
- Complete Title: Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
- Format: Paperback
- Language: English
- Number of Pages: 400
- Publication Time: August 22, 2023
- Publisher: Penguin Books
- ISBN: 014313759X
- ISBN13: 9780143137597
About Douglas Stone
Douglas Stone
Reviews Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
Slappy
Difficult Conversations is a how-to self-help book on negotiating conflict in emotionally-loaded discussions between two people. Authored by members of the Harvard Negotiation Project (which sounds aw…
Otis Chandler
I read this on a recommendation from a friend who gave it to me on a list of business books to read. But it was so much more. It gives you a great framework for thinking through why people have commun…
Jaclyn
My husband and I both have ADHD, and that makes for some major communication challenges. This book will help anyone get a better handle on tricky interactions. It should be required reading for anyone…
Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea
What a piece of shit book. Ok, so this was touted as THE book to solve the personnel problems at the food coop I used to work at. My boss, being a corporate minded, new-ager, pop-psychology fan, was t…
Mimi
You know that book that you recommend to everyone because you feel so strongly it can help anyone change their life in profound ways? This one is mine. It sat in my book pile for years and I would pic…
Dee Arr
Conversations make up a significant portion of many of our days. Minor or major clashes can lead to issues at work and home, and may ultimately contribute to significant problems in our marriages, job…
Krzysztof
This one of the best communication books I’ve read. Although, it might be actually more a psychology book in disguise.This is not a typical communication/negotiation book, where you receive tactical t…
Mark
Read at the insistence of my wife. I think she was trying to tell me something. Not sure what it was. Back to nerd fiction…
Jessica
I constantly recommend this book to friends, family and colleagues. It was introduced to me in a negotiations class and I learned the most from this book over any other book I was made to read in my g…