Published: Sept. 15, 2016
People silhouetted while having a conversation

Human Resources-Organizational and Employee Development (OED) introduces Crucial Conversations, a two-day course that teaches skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics– at all levels of the organization.

If you go
Cost: $200 (The course fee includes a Crucial Conversations Toolkit, cue cards for each lesson, a Crucial Conversations model card, a copy of the New York Times bestselling book, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, the Crucial Conversations audio companion MP3 download, and a course completion certificate).

Who should attend: Crucial Conversations training is appropriate for employees at all levels of the organization. Supervisors, managers, and executive leaders will find the course to be particularly relevant to their work.

To register: Click through or search for Crucial Conversations in Skillport

Consider these questions:

  • Does your department suffer from taboo topics, deference, disagreement, analysis paralysis, information hoarding, office politics, or alienation? 
  • Is your department battling slow productivity or low morale? 
  • Are you a supervisor who struggles with having difficult conversations with employees? 

If you answered yes to any of the above, then you, your team, or your department needs Crucial Conversations training. By learning how to speak and be heard (and encouraging others to do the same), you’ll surface the best ideas, make the highest-quality decisions, and then act on your decisions with unity and commitment. 

Human Resources-OED has teamed up with VitalSmarts https://www.vitalsmarts.com/products-solutions/crucial-conversations/ to offer this important course to CU Boulder employees. Based on the national best-selling book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when the Stakes are High, the Crucial Conversations course teaches participants to speak persuasively, not abrasively; foster teamwork and better decision making; build acceptance rather than resistance; and resolve individual and group disagreements. 

Crucial Conversations is offered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Administrative Research Center (East Campus) for the following sessions: 

  • Sept. 27 and 29 
  • Oct. 18 and 20 
  • Nov. 14 and 16 
  • Dec. 13 and 15 
  • Jan. 17 and 19 
  • March 13 and 15 
  • April 10 and 11 

Questions? Contact Andrew Frank at andrew.d.frank@colorado.edu or 303-492-8103.