Fierce Conversation: The Resolution

This is the fourth of several posts this week based on my review of the book Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott (The Penguin Group 2002)—available on Amazon. I highly recommend this book for solving problems and building deeper relationships—in both your personal and professional lives.

Resolution: Now it’s time to move toward agreement about the next steps.

a. Ask questions that move you toward resolution: Example: “What have we learned? Where are we now? Where do we go from here? What do we need to do now to resolve this situation?

b. Make an agreement about holding each other responsible: Example: “I’m wondering what you and I need to do specifically and on a timeline to help change this situation as a win-win for us both. Do you have any thoughts about what we can do? Would you be interested in brainstorming this to move it forward?”

c. After this meeting, you may consider summing up what happened and setting out some deadlines, without sounding like a field marshal!

d. While fierce conversations seem difficult, they gets much easier every time you use them. AND they make a real difference in our personal and professional happiness. Remember, problems unaddressed only get bigger and tougher if not addressed by a fierce conversation.