Tag: crucial conversations

a group of people working together at a table.

New Year, New Professional Development Courses

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The Organization and Professional Development (OPD) department in MSU Human Resources has spots open in the following courses to support your learning and development in January, February and March:

EBS Financial Systems: Roles and Onboarding | January 25 | Virtual

Are you new to MSU and/or to a financial role? This session intends to answer the question: Where do I start? You have a vast toolbox available to you.

Taming the Email Beast | February 8 | Virtual

Professionals spend much of their work (and personal) time buried under a stream of email, spinning wheels and feeling highly unsatisfied. If you would like to get control of your email “beast,” attend this program featuring specific tips for Outlook and Gmail users, but applicable to ANY email user.

KFS Transactional Edocs: Types and Purposes | February 15 | Virtual

This class will provide detailed information about processing various types of Edocs in KFS, including those listed below, and information about action item buttons, document status, workflow routing and search functionality.

Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue | Starts March 13| In-Person

High-performing individuals and organizations know how to hold crucial conversations — where emotions are strong, opinions vary, and the stakes are high. In this two-day course, learn powerful skills to help you speak up quickly, directly and effectively when it matters most, including moments of disagreement, risk or change.     

Cultural Competency | March 18 | In-Person

One of MSU’s guiding principles is to lead inclusively, actively, and intentionally to promote full participation and a sense of safety and belonging for all employees and staff. Join us in building cultural awareness and inclusiveness skills that strengthen cultural competence.

All the current Organization and Professional Development courses are on the HR website. Class enrollment is completed within the EBS Portal. Employees may use available educational assistance funds towards course fees (if any).

OPD Course Spotlight – Crucial Conversations

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Written by MSU HR Organization and Professional Development

Problem: We feel stuck or are not achieving what we want in a variety of areas, ranging from awkward or failing relationships to dysfunctional teams to cost, quality, or safety problems at work.

Solution: Learn how to identify the crucial conversations that are the key to organizational, team, and interpersonal success.

Crucial Conversations, a two-day live, online course from HR Organization and Professional Development (OPD), is currently open for registration in the EBS Portal. Employees may use available educational assistance funds to pay for this program.

Who can benefit from Crucial Conversations? Frankly…everyone.

MSU HR Senior Learning and Organization Development Specialist and Crucial Conversations instructor, Kathie Elliott, explains, “Crucial Conversations is for anyone who would like to understand first how our own viewpoint can make an issue seem worse than it is, then use a flexible template for holding results-oriented and respectful conversations with others.”

Attend OPD’s Crucial Conversations to learn the following skills and principles:

  • Identify the right problem to hold the right conversation.
  • Stay focused on what you really want when motives degrade.
  • Take control of your emotions instead of losing your cool.
  • Speak persuasively, not abrasively.
  • Watch for signs that safety is at risk and make it safe to talk.
  • Help others into dialogue when they’re feeling hurt, scared, or defensive.
  • Go from talking to getting results.

Whenever you’re not getting the results you want, it’s likely an important conversation either hasn’t happened or hasn’t been handled well. At the heart of healthy and high-performance organizations are people willing and able to hold crucial conversations.

So, what makes a conversation crucial? Three elements: strong emotions, high stakes, and opposing opinions.

Image of a triangle with the words "crucial conversations" in the center. On each side is a phrase: opposing opinions, strong emotions, and high stakes.

When conversations turn crucial, people tend to follow one of two ineffective paths: they either speak directly and abrasively to get the results they want but harm relationships, or they remain silent with the hope of preserving relationships only to sacrifice results. Crucial Conversations, grounded in decades of social science research, gives you powerful skills to step into disagreement—rather than over or around it—and turn disagreement into dialogue for improved relationships and results.

A recent Crucial Conversations participant shares, “The class was helpful because it gives a step-by-step way to communicate effectively that does not leave any room for ambiguity. I learned that it is all I can do to get out my side of the story, but it is crucial to get feedback from the other side so you can meet in the middle somewhere.”

Ready to learn the tools for promoting open, honest dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics? Register for an upcoming Crucial Conversations session in the EBS Portal, or contact prodev@hr.msu.edu for additional information.