Acumen Presents: Sheila Heen on Difficult Conversations

Course details

Whether we're dealing with anunder-performing employee, disagreeing with our partner, or negotiating with adifficult client, we attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day. Nomatter how competent or experienced we are, we all have conversations thatcause anxiety and frustration.

This is particularly true for people workingin the social sector. They're often faced with situations where they need tountangle differing perspectives, advocate for those who are underserved, orsimply manage their employees and volunteers while facing resource constraints.

In this course, you'll learn practicalstrategies to handle difficult conversations with grace and agility while achievingproductive results. Taught by Sheila Heen, a professor at Harvard Law School andco-author of Difficult Conversationsand Thanks for the Feedback, thiscourse will introduce you to actionable insights to understand the 3 layers ofevery difficult conversation. You'll learn how to authentically shift from astance of blame and certainty to one of learning and openness. You'll alsopractice tactics like "starting from the third story" to help neutralize thetoxic dynamics of difficult conversations and achieve more productive results. Finally,you'll understand how and why emotions and issues of identity frequently comeup in these challenging dialogues—and how you can address them preemptively andprofessionally while being authentic and empathetic.

This course is for anyone who needs to worktogether with other people—in their personal or professional lives—to achievesomething tough but meaningful together.