Crucial Assessment (Interactive Tool)
Determine which training product is
right for you by taking the VitalSmarts
Crucial Assessment.
This will help you identify the points at
which your organization is likely failing.
Crucial Conversations Style Under Stress
Assessment (Interactive Tool)
Discover what may be keeping you stuck and not getting better results.
Crucial Conversations 720° (32-page PDF)
A revolutionary two-part 360° process for professional development. Sample profile for John Doe.
Crucial Confrontations
Self-Assessment (Interactive Tool)
Learn about your ability
to handle situations when individuals violate trust or don't meet expectations.
Team Effectiveness Survey
Request access to this tool to evaluate the effectiveness of your team.
Silence Fails Assessment (2-page PDF)
Will Your Project Succeed?
Entrepreneurs Stress Test & Reality Check
Are you an entrepreneur? Are you stressed? Take our quiz to find out. Then take the entrepreneur's reality check quiz to see what's going on with you and your business.
Training Overviews
Crucial Conversations® Training Overview (2-page PDF)
“Get Unstuck and Rapidly Improve the Results You Care About Most."
A brief overview of the Crucial Conversations training course, its learning objectives, format, materials and general outline.
Crucial Confrontations™ Training Overview (1-page PDF)
"Ensure Accountability and Execution With A Proven Step-by-Step Process."
A brief overview of the Crucial Confrontations training course, its learning objectives, format, materials and general outline.
Book Previews
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(27-page PDF) |
White Papers & Articles
The Human Side of Change (8-page PDF)
People's resistance to new ideas can be inconvenient—it can even be a real pain—but what's the big deal? Is it something you ought to worry about? VitalSmarts' research shows groups who successfully underwent organizational-wide change efforts did two things others couldn't: they used Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations skills.
Silence Kills: The Seven Crucial Conversations for Healthcare
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (2-page PDF)
Full Report (19-page PDF)
Past studies have indicated more than 60 percent of medical errors are caused by mistakes in interpersonal communication (JCAHO). All too often, well-intentioned people in healthcare institutions choose not to speak up when they’re concerned with behavior, decisions or actions of a colleague. The authors provide a series of recommendations for actions leaders can take to improve people’s ability to hold crucial conversations—making it safer for healthcare workers to speak up and eliminate medical errors.
Silence Fails: The Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution
Executive Summary (2-page PDF)
Full Report (28-page PDF)
Upwards of 91 percent of all large-scale corporate initiatives fail—initiatives that have been designed to
save a company from impending disaster, increase organizational competitiveness, or just accomplish
strategic objectives. They consume unplanned resources and miss schedules, they leave behind the stigma
of failure, and they cost leaders careers.This groundbreaking research,
Silence Fails, outlines findings that are simultaneously daunting and hopeful. For the first time, Silence Fails
accurately contrasts the causes and costs of failed initiatives with the impressive returns of investing in
skills that can help anyone navigate the pitfalls of project execution.
Crucial Competencies for Business Leaders (5-page PDF)
Frustrated in your attempts to bridge the gap between performance and expectations? During our twenty-five years researching organizational culture, process, and change management
we routinely see that crucial confrontations are at the heart of every change project. Once an
organization creates a vision of how things should be, it’s essential that leaders not only share the
vision, but then follow up and hold others accountable to living it.
Level 3 Change for Good (14-page PDF)
Read about the VitalSmarts Level 3 process for driving systematic and lasting change in your organization. The bottom-line question for leaders considering a Level 3 approach is this: What do you want? If you want training, then train away. If you want soft change, then ratchet up the training a few notches. Do you want rapid change in vital behaviors that produce significant improvements in results? VitalSmarts can help you get there.
The Ten Secrets to Managing Broken Promises, Violated Expectations,
and Bad Behavior (4-page PDF)
Learn how to (1) master the "hazardous half minute," (2) follow the admonition of Joe Friday, (3) keep the spotlight off yourself, (4) pick the issue you really care about, (5) avoid Ground Hog Day, (6) diagnose motivation and ability, (7) avoid power like the plague, (8) "make it easy," (9) avoid getting sidetracked, and (10) end well.
Six Sigma: Beyond the Flavor of the Month (10-page PDF)
Why do some Six Sigma programs succeed and others fail? We interviewed both black belts and teams that had made no progress in spite of massive
investments in training and support. Next we interviewed the teams that had adopted
and aggressively implemented Six Sigma principles. The differences could not have been
more stark. And the message could not have been more surprising.
Don't Feed the Hog (37-page PDF)
This handbook outlines the
critical behaviors necessary to obtain peak performance in an organization.
See how the world’s best leaders and performers get results by
holding others accountable while still maintaining respect.
Development: Crucial Conversations (T&D Magazine Reprint; 3-page PDF)
"Everyone has been there. In fact, if you’re like most of us, you’re there right now. You know you need to talk to someone about an important issue, but you haven’t stepped up to the conversation. Not really. You may have danced around the issue or sugarcoated your message. There’s no need to be mean, right? Or maybe you relied on hints, sarcasm, or not-so-subtle humor, but the person missed the message completely. Or maybe she did get it and became defensive and abusive, so you backed off before the discussion spun out of control. Now when you think about re-entering the conversation, you break into a cold sweat…" From the December 2003 Issue of T&D Magazine.
Case Studies
AT&T Case Study (2-page PDF)
Billing costs reduced 90% with Crucial Conversations training.
Dallas Housing Authority (2-page PDF)
Learn how mastering Crucial Confrontations helped the Dallas Housing Authority increase accountability accross the organization, eliminate territorialism, reduce employee conflict, and unite the leadership team.
Lockheed Martin Case Study (2-page PDF)
Crucial Conversations training helps win $200 billion Joint Strike Fighter contract.
MaineGeneral Health Case Study (2-page PDF)
Crucial Conversations Training Improves Patient Safety at Maine Healthcare System.
Sprint Case Study (2-page PDF)
IT department improves productivity 93%.