Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High

2

Give me a lever long enough

and I shall move the world.

-ARCHIMEDES

Mastering

Crucial

Conversations

The Power of Dialogue

We (the authors) didn't always spend our time noodling over
crucial conversations. In fact, we started our research into orga­
nizational and personal excellence by studying a slightly different
topic. We figured that if we could learn why certain people were
more effective than others, then we could learn exactly what they
did, clone it, and pass it on to others.
To find the source of success, we started at work. We asked
people to identify who they thought were their most effective