Comments on: Resolving stuck conversations…..

By: Recommended Link for July 1st by Jonathan Babcock

Recommended Link for July 1st by Jonathan Babcock — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:37:08 +0000

[...] The Practice of Leadership – Blog Archive – Resolving stuck conversations.. – Conversation creates involvement, which generates the commitment. It’s commitment that ensures aligned action and an effective end result. Therefore, getting the conversations right is of critical importance. [...]

By: Steve Roesler

Steve Roesler — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:29:29 +0000

Hi, George,

Indeed, a very thoughtful and collaborative approach.

Just led a “difficult” conversation between an exec and direct reports. Although I hadn’t seen your post, I use a quite similar model.

The outcome?

I learned that the real cause of the issue to begin with was that the executive had listening/understanding/empathy skills that registered in negative numbers. The outcome: this person has been given an option to work with a “coach” to get those attributes to an acceptable level. In the absence of that growth, it will probably cost the executive the position.

This is a sticky one and, in this case, required that the boss (CEO) was fully aware of the situation and willing to follow through. Without that, there would be no leverage.

In no way does this negate the desirability of your approach. The success factors, from my experience, usually come down to two issues:

1. Are the participants all people of good will?

2. Does each–especially the leader–possess the requisite skill and related sensitivity to fully engage in the meaning of the conversation?

Thanks for taking the time to lay out your approach so thoroughly.

By: Erik Schumann

Erik Schumann — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:30:47 +0000

Thanks for an interesting article. It is a very good distillation of some separated thoughts that I have had in such situations. The change formula is – according to my guess – quite some help in understanding the dynamics of resistance. However I wonder where capability and resource access come into place? In my experience a team gets easily frustrated – and is thus more resistant to change – if the task or change at hand is to demanding for their level of capabilities.