MAKING TOUGH

CONVERSATIONS GREAT

Self study Course

Reduce Stress!

Increase Confidence!

Move from Fear to Action!

All from the convenience of studying in your own home or workplace – on your own time and at your own pace!

You’ll love this self-directed training program designed to stretch your thinking and deliver practical tools to help you look at conflict as the opportunity that it truly is.

This e-course comes in 10 easy to read modules where you learn the Difficult Conversations 8-step system with actionable, practical steps.

Cost: $297.00 plus applicable tax

“You facilitated the best, most effective conflict course I have taken thus far in my career. Making difficult conversations great….use it everyday!” – Lara Gregory, Program Coordinator

Does this sound like you?

Do you avoid difficult conversations like the plague?
Would you rather get a root canal than have a difficult conversation?
Do you find yourself facing difficult conversations over and over again – sometimes a few times a day?

Then you know that difficult conversations usually don’t go away by themselves – in fact, they often get worse the longer you leave them!

Continual difficult conversations also wear people down, causing:

trouble sleeping
upset stomachs
crying at times we don’t want to
losing hair and even eyebrows

Why do so many of us either avoid difficult conversations or mess them up so badly that they continue to come back again and again?

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them” –Albert Einstein

There is significant risk in bringing up and working through difficult conversations: how you deal with them makes all the difference!

As Einstein said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Many people think they can’t do anything differently, so don’t even bother.

There is a way to move from that dark, hopeless place to more productive, and useful conversations!

“New tools to use without further training needed.” – Roland Guenther, workshop participant

How to Have Difficult Conversations offers a convenient self-study e-course you can access anytime and takes you through the key steps you need to transform those stress-producing conversations into productive ones.

In this self-coaching e-course, you will build a framework to enhance any difficult conversation, and a model for how to navigate through it. You will be given tools to help prepare you to make those difficult conversations great!

Having the e-course available to you week after week for a full year will help ensure that this topic will get your attention and that you will be able to dive into it more fully! Each module is bite-sized and yet also reinforces the learning each step of the way.

The e-course investment is $297.00 plus applicable tax.

“…gave me some direction on how to have my conversations (one due) and tools.”
-B.V., workshop participant

This is a ONE TIME payment. There will be NO re-billing.

Do you have similar complaints?

“Rarely a week goes by that is completely free of the need for difficult conversations.”
“S/he isn’t listening to me.”
“As a manager, I have difficult conversations regularly.”
“Having difficult discussions continues to be an ongoing part of my job.”
“I have to talk to staff about performance – like one who is an excellent worker but whose language offends other people.”

Let me introduce myself. My name is Julia Menard, and I’ve been learning, coaching, teaching, and mediating difficult conversations for over 25 years now. I have a Certificate in both Negotiation and Mediation from the Justice Institute of B.C., been published in national magazines, and been on the teaching team for Royal Roads University and the Justice Institute of B.C. My clients have included hospitals, government (municipal, provincial and federal levels of government), non-profits (from front-line workers to Executive Directors) and more!

I’ve teamed up with my esteemed colleague, Gordon White, who has also been learning, coaching, teaching and mediating difficult conversations for the same length of time. He too has similar credentials and has worked with some of the same organizations I have over the decades. It was almost inevitable that we’d team up and now that we have, we’ve combined our 50+ years of working in conflict in organizations to create this How to Have Difficult Conversations course.

Let me reassure you that we’ve put the best of what we’ve learned from our life and career experiences about making difficult conversations into productive creative ones, all into this course for you.

Through our experiences, we’ve seen everything – the traps and pitfalls that make difficult conversations worse as well as the tips and principles that turn difficult conversations into blessings!

When you sign up for the How to Have Difficult Conversations course – you’ll be benefiting from those years of learning, trial and error, and other people’s input on what works!

You will discover secrets like:

Using a framework to prepare for your difficult conversation before the conversation even starts!
Thinking through the risks and benefits of bringing up the conversation – from your point of view – and from theirs!
Creating a strategy to manage yourself so you can “strengthen your container” and keep yourself more resourced.
Separating your facts from your (often unconscious) put-downs and negative assumptions about those facts!
Linking how each party feels to what you need.
Winning yourself a hearing!

The Top Five Benefits in taking this e-Course:

Decrease your stress associated with the prospect of having the difficult conversation.
Increase your confidence by learning how to engage the difficult conversations productively.
Create better relationships.
Prevent small conflicts from growing into mountains.
Strengthen your leadership skills in modeling how to deal with issues.

“This course helps to take the fear out of tough conversations.” – Workshop participant

If it’s part of your job to have difficult conversations, this e-Course will enable you to feel comfortable, confident and productive.

“Lots of great nuggets about how to approach / perceive a tough conversation.” – Workshop participant

If you are still wondering if this course is for you, remember this self-coaching e-Course helps you to:

Enhance your professional skills
Have more productive conversations
Create better outcomes at your workplace
Have happier people working under you, with you and above you!
You are going to add value and look to your bosses – not only are you looking good but you are making your bosses look good!

More benefits include:

Reflective: the week to week nature of the program allows you to think about what you are learning, absorb it at your own pace, and reflect on specific questions.

Flexible: you decide when you want to work on your modules. We do recommend you pace yourself with approximately 30 minutes set aside to dive into one of the ten modules and do the homework. We find weekly pacing is the maximum time to allow to elapse between modules

Affordable!

“It won’t make a difference if only I learn these skills. The other person needs to learn them!”

“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behaviour corsses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” -Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point

“My boss won’t pay for this. It’s not worth taking on my work time.”

That might be the case; then again, many people have been sponsored to take communication and collaborative negotiation skills to strengthen their ability to do their job. A good tip I’ve learned from our clients is to plan ahead and ask for communication courses as part of your annual performance planning and professional development planning work. You won’t know unless you try!

Investing in this e-Course will be cheaper and less costly in dollars and human resources than going through conflict resolution / sick days to avoid toxic situations at work. You don’t want to get so bad it goes to arbitration when it could have been nipped in the bud early.

So, if you want your workplace to sponsor you, this information can help you in preparing for your difficult conversation.

“Collaborative negotiating skills like this should be like taking CPR – required by all with refreshers mandatory once a year!” – Workshop participant

“Extremely valuable. Amazingly helpful info and practical wisdom.” -H.F., Workshop participant

Warmly,

Julia Menard

P.S. With How to Have Difficult Conversations, you will learn the techniques to creating high quality conversations that can change your life! You are going to learn techniques that are used by mediators and collaborative negotiators the world over. Gordon White and I have simplified and tailored the process specifically for those who want to make their own difficult conversations great.

One time investment of $297 (+ applicable tax)

P.P.S. If you still need more information, come on over to the On Conflict Leadership Institute that Gordon and I co-created and check out more on the course and the other services we provide together through the Institute.

Phone: 250–381–7522 • E-mail: julia@juliamenard.com