Joseph Grenny is a New York Times bestselling author of eight books, including the communication classic, Crucial Conversations. His work has been used by nearly half of the Forbes Global 2000 and has helped millions of people achieve better relationships and results. He cofounded Crucial Learning (formerly VitalSmarts), one of the world’s most respected learning and organization development firms, offering courses in communication, performance, and leadership.
Joseph is also the cofounder and current board chair of Unitus Labs, an international nonprofit that has helped more than 50 million people increase their self-reliance and provided capital arrangement services of more than $2 billion to some of the world’s most successful socially oriented ventures. Joseph also cofounded The Other Side Academy (TOSA), a residential school that teaches vocational and life skills to people with histories of crime, addiction, and homelessness.
Crucial conversations (conversations where stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong) happen every day and impact all of our results, yet few people invest in the skills for holding them well.
Studies show that the inability to discuss a problem can be more destructive than the problem itself. Issues like poor productivity, declining quality, lack of teamwork, or strained relationships are often the effects of crucial conversations that aren’t being held or aren’t being held well.
Learn to step up to high stakes conversations skillfully and respectfully and begin to resolve the problems by.
• Surfacing the best ideas
• Making important decisions
• Act on decisions with unity and commitment
Your organization’s ability to grow is determined by the employees’ capacity to do two things well.
Identify, respond and triumph over challenges, and Adapt to change.
Executive leadership, managers, front-line workers, everyone up and down the org chart must be rowing in the same direction on those two areas. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done.
The key ingredient: people holding one another accountable. Accountable to adopt new processes, accept new ways of working, innovate products and services, and more effectively serve customers (to name a few). This is easily one of the most important – yet difficult things to achieve.
Joseph will share examples from a fascinating case study of The Other Side Academy where ex-convicts have created an accountability culture where relationships and results flourish. You’ll gain valuable insights and practical takeaways such as:
• Why accountability is vital to organizational success
• How to cut lag time and disappointment between what people say and what they deliver
• A step-by-step strategy for building total accountability in the workplace
• How to address performance in a way that solves the problem while actually strengthening the relationship
Financially agile companies adapt to changing economic circumstances far more rapidly and effectively than the rest of the pack. A study of 1,400 executives and managers attributed thier financial agility to the capacity to handle four crucial conversations around fiscal challenges. Firms that handled the following conversations well adapted over ten times faster and weathered downturns far more intelligently than their peers:
1. Debate, Dithering, and Denial—managers drag their feet rather than respond assertively to financial challenges.
2. Undiscussables—enormous efficiencies and reductions are possible but seem politically risky to discuss.
3. Silent Collusion—when leaders fail to follow through on committed reductions, others fail to hold them accountable.
4. Irrational Slashing—executives impose across-the-board reductions or other policies that middle managers realize will create serious downsides the executives may be unaware of.
An organization’s success is determined by how well people execute on its high-stakes projects and initiatives. However, current execution trends are anything but promising. According to recent research:
• Fewer than one in three critical initiatives will achieve intended goals, and almost half are deemed outright failures.
• 83 percent of employees say they are working on projects, programs, and initiatives they believe will fail.
• Companies’ collective inability to execute on major projects costs hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
The good news is that these failures are predictable—and therefore, preventable. In the groundbreaking study, Silence Fails: The Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution, VitalSmarts and The Concours Group found that project failures are almost always preceded by conversation failures. Learn to step up to these five crucial conversations and improve results through better decision making, higher quality project execution, and more engaged leadership.
Behind the problems that routinely plague our organizations and families, you'll find individuals who are either unwilling or unable to deal with broken promises. Colleagues break a rule, coworkers miss a deadline, friends fail to live up to commitments (or just plain behave badly), and nobody says a word. Nobody holds anyone accountable. With repeated infractions, individuals become increasingly upset until they finally do speak their minds, but they do so poorly--often creating whole new sets of problems.
Research proves that mishandled disappointments aren't just morale killers, they're institution killers--diminishing organizational performance by 20 to 50 percent and accounting for up to 90 percent of all divorces.
Drawing from 10,000 hours of observations, Crucial Accountability teaches you how to deal with common infractions such as:
An employee speaks to you in an insulting tone that crosses the line between sarcasm and insubordination. Now what?
Your boss just demanded that you meet a deadline you know you can't meet--and he clearly doesn't want to hear complaints about it.
Your son walks through the door sporting colorful new body art that raises your blood pressure by 40 points. Speak now or pay later.
Family members fret over how to tell Granddad that he should no longer drive his car. This is going to get ugly.
A nurse worries about what to say to an abusive physician. She quickly remembers how things work around here and decides not to say anything.
Everyone knows how to run for cover, or, if sufficiently provoked, step up to problems in a way that causes a real ruckus. Crucial Accountability teaches you how to deal with violated expectations in a way that solves the problem at hand without harming the relationship--and, in fact, even strengthens it.
Broken promises, missed deadlines, poor behavior--they don't just make others' lives miserable; they can sap up to 50 percent of organizational performance and account for the vast majority of divorces. Crucial Accountability offers the tools for improving relationships in the workplace and in life and for resolving all these problems--permanently.
PRAISE FOR CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY:
Revolutionary ideas ... opportunities for breakthrough ... -- Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Unleash the true potential of a relationship or organization and move it to the next level. -- Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager
The most recommended and most effective resource in my library. -- Stacey Allerton Firth, Vice President, Human Resources, Ford of Canada
Brilliant strategies for those difficult discussions at home and in the workplace. -- Soledad O'Brien, CNN news anchor and producer
This book is the real deal.... Read it, underline it, learn from it. It's a gem. -- Mike Murray, VP Human Resources and Administration (retired), Microsoft
An INFLUENCER leads change.
An INFLUENCER replaces bad behaviors with powerful new skills.
An INFLUENCER makes things happen.
This is what it takes to be an INFLUENCER.
Whether you're a CEO, a parent, or merely a person who wants to make a difference, you probably wish you had more influence with the people in your life. But most of us stop trying to make change happen because we believe it is too difficult, if not impossible. We learn to cope rather than learning to influence.
From the bestselling authors who taught the world how to have Crucial Conversations comes the new edition of Influencer, a thought-provoking book that combines the remarkable insights of behavioral scientists and business leaders with the astonishing stories of high-powered influencers from all walks of life. You'll be taught each and every step of the influence process--including robust strategies for making change inevitable in your personal life, your business, and your world. You'll learn how to:
Influencer takes you on a fascinating journey from San Francisco to Thailand to South Africa, where you'll see how seemingly insignificant people are making incredibly significant improvements in solving problems others would think impossible. You'll learn how savvy folks make change not only achievable and sustainable, but inevitable. You'll discover breakthrough ways of changing the key behaviors that lead to greater safety, productivity, quality, and customer service.
No matter who you are or what you do, you'll never learn a more valuable or important set of principles and skills. Once you tap into the power of influence, you can reach out and help others work smarter, grow faster, live, look, and feel better--and even save lives. The sky is the limit . . . for an Influencer.
PRAISE FOR INFLUENCER:
AN INSTANT CLASSIC! Whether you're leading change or changing your life, this book delivers. -- Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Ideas can change the world--but only when coupled with influence--the ability to change hearts, minds, and behavior. This book provides a practical approach to lead change and empower us all to make a difference. -- Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Influencing human behavior is one of the most difficult challenges faced by leaders. This book provides powerful insight into how to make behavior change that will last. -- Sidney Taurel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Eli Lilly and Company
If you are truly motivated to make productive changes in your life, don't put down this book until you reach the last page. Whether dealing with a recalcitrant teen, doggedly resistant coworkers, or a personal frustration that 'no one ever wants to hear my view, ' Influencer can help guide you in making the changes that put you in the driver's seat. -- Deborah Norville, anchor of Inside Edition and bestselling author