Honest conversations
Few of us are naturals when it comes to having honest conversations, especially around giving and receiving feedback.

We struggle to find a path between being too direct and confrontational, as against softening our message so much that it gets lost in an emotional fog.
We need to structure information in a non-emotive way, giving clear feedback and delivering messages with empathy and compassion. We need a toolkit we can use on a day-to-day basis to build an honest, open working culture with those who report to us – and, indeed, with those to whom we report. This very popular programme is the answer.
What’s in it for you?
- Understand what honest conversations are and why they’re important
- Be able to identify and manage your emotions
- Be able to use a variety of techniques for structuring honest conversations
- Learn how to get key messages across, with empathy and compassion
Workshop outline
1 What’s a difficult conversation? What’s an honest conversation? And what’s the difference?
- What makes a conversation ‘difficult’?
- What makes for an ‘honest’ conversation?
- Why they’re not the same
2 The role emotions play
- What neuroscience tells us about how our emotions work
- How certain situations can prompt strong reactions
- The NLP model of communication and how our brains will delete, distort and generalise information based on our own unique map of the world
- The belief cycle
- Techniques for identifying your emotions and managing them
3 Understanding your purpose
- Where most conversations go wrong
- Are you looking for them to change behaviour, to understand new information, to influence them or to express your feelings?
- The A to B model for structuring your honest conversation
4 Giving and receiving feedback
- The benefits of giving and receiving feedback
- How emotions play a role in feedback
- How to structure feedback using the See/Saw Model
- How giving positive feedback can be just as difficult for some people
- How to manage your emotions and accept feedback with grace
- Keeping focused on the positives
5 Raising issues
- How to build up to an honest conversation
- Maintaining rapport while raising issues
- The LADDER model for planning and executing the discussion
6 Empathy and understanding others’ perspectives
- How a perceived lack of understanding and empathy raise the temperature
- Practical techniques for ‘standing in the other’s shoes’
- Effective questioning and listening
- The role of positive intentions and values in honest conversations
7 Making sure you get it right
- The ‘must haves’ for effective honest conversations
- Unconscious biases
- Affinity bias
- Attribution bias
- Conformity bias
- Confirmation bias
- Gender bias
- Factual inaccuracies
- The Ladder of Inference as a model for taking a fact-based approach
8 Actions and next steps
- Review
- Personal action planning
- Next steps
To discuss which management and personal effectiveness modules would best suit you, just give us a call on 01582 463460 and we’ll be happy to talk you through the options.