THE “WHAT” SKILLS
Share Your Facts
In the last chapter we suggested that if you retrace your Path to Action to the source, you eventually arrive at the facts. For example, Carole found the credit card invoice. That’s a fact. She then told a story—Bob’s having an affair. Next, she felt betrayed and horrified. Finally, she attacked Bob—“I should never have married you!” The whole interaction was fast, predictable, and very ugly.
What if Carole took a different route—one that started with facts? What if she were able to suspend the ugly story she told herself (by intentionally thinking of alternative plausible stories) and then start her conversation with the facts? Wouldn’t that be a safer way to go? “Maybe,” she muses, “there is a good reason ...
Get Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
