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, a popular professional development workshop series for faculty and staff, will be offered over multiple weeks beginning Jan. 20.

What Is a Crucial Conversation?

Crucial conversations take place in organizations every day. They include:

• Conversations where stakes are high, emotions are strong and opinions differ;
• Conversations around work quality, time management, productivity, performance, customer satisfaction, sensitive issues, conflict or a strained relationship; and
• Conversations that are often avoided and/or not handled well, leading to poor outcomes.

Workshop participants will learn how to spot when conversations become crucial, avoid repeating the same conversation, separate facts from stories and emotions, and make clearer decisions and commitments, among other skills.

I Need This! How Do I Join?

• Next series runs Jan. 20-March 10
• Meet in person on Friday mornings, 9:30-11:30 a.m.
• Location on North Campus to be announced

Important

• Participants must be available for all eight weeks of the program (there will be seven sessions total; an extra week is built into the schedule).
• Managers and supervisors are highly encouraged to attend, as the program teaches skills that are especially applicable to those managing others.

The program provides experiential learning through exercises, practice with real issues and group discussions. Because there is a cost of $350 per person to cover program materials, departmental approval is necessary. The fee will be charged to participants’ budget centers and approval from your supervisor and budget manager is required.

Pam Gavenda, associate director of organizational development and training and Crucial Conversations Certified Trainer, facilitates a prior Crucial Conversations session in partnership with the Women in Leadership Initiative.

Past participants speak highly of the program, saying:

• “I learned so much about how to have more effective conversations overall in addition to crucial conversations—[this course] made me think of how I can communicate better.”
• “Everyone from the highest-level executive on campus on down could learn something from this course. It explored real-life situations, the videos were great and the learning materials are perfectly designed to reference when applying these new communication strategies.”
• “Crucial Conversations provides an extraordinary value considering the lifelong applications with which you walk away. I think the aspect I like the most is that the skills developed can be used in every avenue of your day-to-day life.”
• “This subject matter is so critical—the learning environment was very well-constructed and made for a safe and fun learning experience.”

Space is limited to 24 participants; !