Winning Conversations with ‘POISE NOW’: Step 1 - Purpose

Posted in : HR Updates ROI on 17 February 2016
Mary Rafferty
Consensus Mediation
Issues covered:

All of us have certain situations and conversations that we dislike and prefer to avoid. Perhaps we have to give someone a negative message, raise a sensitive issue, discuss a project that has gone wrong.

We see only two options – we have to either go in heavy and push our agenda or water down our message and try and keep things smoothed over. But there is a third way: 
you can be upfront and supportive, you can be clear and empathic, you can acknowledge and give a straight message.
 
My new 8 step ‘POISE NOW’ programme is designed to help you prepare in advance of a potentially contentious conversation. Each stage flags a key aspect of a ’difficult conversation’ to reflect on and prepare for. As well as being an acronym of each stage, the word ‘poise’ means with grace and balance – which tends to be a helpful way of approaching these kinds of situations and interactions. 

In this and future articles, I describe each stage in detail with suggested action points relating to that stage.
 
You can find a pictorial overview of all 8 steps on this Infographic here.
 
At the end, you will have a clear, actionable roadmap that you can use to transform those ‘difficult’ conversations into win-win outcomes for both you and the other person in the situation.

This article looks at the first step – P - Purpose 
 
Read Step1 here.

This article is correct at 17/02/2016
Disclaimer:

The information in this article is provided as part of Legal-Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article.

Mary Rafferty
Consensus Mediation

The main content of this article was provided by Mary Rafferty. Contact telephone number is +353 71 965 1966 or email mary@consensusmediation.ie

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