About this Online Workshop

This workshop is the advanced version of OMSSA's popular foundational workshop, Making Difficult Conversations Easier. To get the most out of this workshop, it is recommended that learners first complete the foundational workshop.

During the foundational workshop, we examined what makes conversations difficult, why they occur and how to manage them. We outlined and practiced the key skills of de-escalating angry emotions, empathetic listening and asking good questions to unpack and focus on interests instead of positions. In addition, we explored the proper sequencing of the conversation along with how best to be both empathetic and assertive.

Now, in this advanced workshop, we will pick up where we left off and discover:

• how best to prepare for a difficult conversation,
• additional conversation tools that can be used to move the conversation to positive results
• a multi-faceted questioning technique that zeroes in on the core areas where the causes of the conflict and impasse lie

Participants will also walk along the Resolution Pathway, a robust and comprehensive step-based process that ties everything together from start to finish and, if followed, is guaranteed to lead to a positive conclusion and relationship.

NOTE: This is an interactive, virtual training session, which is different from a webinar. Participants will be expected to participate through voice and video, and to engage with each other and the facilitator in large and small group discussions, to learn from each other and practice skill development.

Learning Objectives

• Properly prepare for a difficult conversation
• Develop greater questioning skills by examining the root causes of behavior (including broken promises) using a model that contains six sources of influence
• Learn more advanced, effective and practical communication tools, including:
  • Managing the angry person
  • Delivering bad news
    
  • Making it safe to talk
  • Understanding unconscious bias
  • Tone, volume and cadence
  • Unpacking the importance of the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)
  • Summarizing and Paraphrasing
  • Futurizing
  • Reframing
  • Reality testing
• Learn a comprehensive step-based process known as the Resolution Pathway that ties everything together from the foundational and advanced workshops
• Practice skills using real-world case scenarios

Who Should Attend?

• This workshop is well-suited for any human services professional. 
• Participants who attended the foundational Making Difficult Conversations Easier workshop.

Format and Duration

Three, two-hour sessions over the course of one week