Difficult Conversations

How to Discuss What Matters Most

By: Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, Roger Fisher - foreword

Narrated by: Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen

The 10th-anniversary edition of the New York Times business bestseller—now updated with "Answers to Ten Questions People Ask"

We attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day—whether dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with a spouse, or negotiating with a client. From the Harvard Negotiation Project, the organization that brought you Getting to Yes, Difficult Conversations provides a step-by-step approach to having those tough conversations with less stress and more success. You'll learn how to:

· Decipher the underlying structure of every difficult conversation

· Start a conversation without defensiveness

· Listen for the meaning of what is not said

· Stay balanced in the face of attacks and accusations

· Move from emotion to productive problem solving

©1999 Douglas Stone, Bruce M. Patton, Sheila Heen (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Does this book deliver on its promise of an effective way through sticky situations, whether ‘with your babysitter or your biggest client’? It does.”—The New York Times

“These talented communicators blend a daunting array of disciplines into highly readable and practical advice.”—Booklist

“I’m on my third reading. Half the pages are dog-eared. This is a mind-bogglingly powerful book. For life.”—Tom Peters

Immediately Applicable

The content in this book is immediately applicable across multiple domains. The inclusion of multiple examples and role-played conversations was immensely helpful in understanding the dynamics being discussed.

Concise and applicable

Finally a book that breaks down complex interactions, and then offers ways to address disagreements in an attempt to address the issues. Excellent examples that are concise.

An overcomplication of simple points

the book took several very simple bullet points, and then made them so very overcomplicated if you get lost in the wordiness of the book. also the voice actors that they used were difficult to understand it parts. some had very soft and Scratchy voices. they were not very clear.

Too much filler, and the narration was mumbled

This book is super fluffy. Over half of it is filler, like the literary equivalent of elevator music. Or an overlong build-up to a joke. I buy books to learn useful information, not to hear someone waffle on and on in a friendly-but-useless way.

The narration wasn’t great, either; the narrator tended to mumble, so I had to raise my volume above the usual level to make out what he was saying.

I regret spending a credit on this.

Too political for me

They obviously have good intentions but the delivery was way too political for me. I felt like they used the stories to push an agenda. I couldn’t finish the book.