Product Description

What is a difficult conversation? Asking for a pay rise, saying 'no' to your boss or spouse, confronting a friend or neighbour, asking a difficult favour, apologizing. We all have conversations that we dread and find unpleasant. But can we develop the skills to make such situations less stressful and more productive? Based on fifteen years of research and consultations with thousands of people, DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS pinpoints what works. Use this ground-breaking, step-by-step book to turnyour difficult conversations into positive, problem-solving experiences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9442 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen work for the Harvard Negotiation Project.

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive introduction to interpersonal skills
Difficult Conversations gives you an excellent introduction in simple language to interpersonal skills. If you read through it and think about the lessons and anecdotes you get real insights into how you can resolve pointless conflicts and live a happier life! For Psychology PhDs this may seem dumbed down but for the average punter it could be worth its weight in gold.

Insightful guide to conversations without confrontation
You will face difficult conversations throughout your life, but now you can learn how to cope with them. This book provides a framework and various strategies for achieving better outcomes from hard exchanges. Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen use principles, illustrative stories and charts to teach you how to understand the components of challenging conversations, and how to prepare for them and transform them into something constructive. The language of the book is clear, insightful, concise and always helpful. You can use these principles in business, but the stories also concern relationships in your everyday life. We say everyone from teenagers to mature adults can use the communication skills discussed in this wise book.

An excellent and practical book.
An extremely useful book which should be compulsory reading for anyone who has experienced difficult conversations in their personal or professional life which I suspect is all of us. The "identity conversation" in particular is of crucial importance and often neglected in other books on interpersonal transactions and negotiations.