Hard Conversations Unpacked: The Whos, the Whens, and the What-Ifs

by Jennifer B. Abrams

Overview

Learn to speak up for what really matters

In Having Hard Conversations, Jennifer Abrams showed educators how to confront colleagues about work-related issues through a planned, interactive, and personal approach. In this sequel, readers move deeper into preparing for those conversations while building expectations for meaningful outcomes. Emphasizing what needs to happen before, during, and after hard conversations, this resource explores

• What humane, growth-producing, and “other-centered” conversations sound like
• How to recognize and account for culture, gender, and generational filters
• How to spot and work with organizational dynamics that could influence discussions
• How to conduct hard conversations with supervisors

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506302904
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	02/05/2016
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	151,291
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.80(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Consulting Description

Jennifer Abrams is an international educational and communications consultant for public and private schools, hospitals, universities and non-profits. She trains and coaches teachers, administrators, nurses, hospital personnel and others on successful instructional practices, new employee support, supervision and evaluation, generational savvy, having hard conversations and effective collaboration skills.

In Palo Alto USD (Palo Alto, CA), Abrams led professional development sessions and provided new teacher and supervisor trainings at both the elementary and secondary level. From 2000-2011, she was lead coach for the Palo Alto-Mountain View-Los Altos-Saratoga-Los Gatos Consortium’s Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program.

In her educational consulting work, she has presented at annual conferences such as Learning Forward, ASCD, NASSP, and the New Teacher Center Annual Symposium, as well as at the Teachers’ and Principals’ Centers for International School Leadership. Her communications consulting in the health care sector includes training and coaching work at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and Stanford Hospitals.

Her publications include Having Hard Conversations, published by Corwin Press in 2009, the chapter “Habits of Mind for the School Savvy Leader” in Art Costa’s and Bena Kallick’s book Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind: 16 Essential Characteristics for Success, and contributions to the book Mentors in the Making: Developing New Leaders for New Teachers published by Teachers College Press. Her most recent book with co-author Valerie Von Frank, Generational Savvy: How to be Effective with Educators of All Generations, was published by Corwin Press in 2013.

She considers herself a “voice coach,” helping others learn how to best use their voices, be it in a group, in front of a classroom, coaching a colleague, in a supervisory role and most recently in writing for the stage, as she does as a Board Member of the National New Play Network. Abrams holds a Master’s degree in Education from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in English from Tufts University.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1. Is This Really a Hard Conversation or Something Else?
Chapter 2. Clarity, Clarity, Clarity
Chapter 3. Being Other-Focused: Planning the Hard Conversation
Chapter 4. Organizational Politics, Working With Supervisors or Groups, and Hard Conversations
Chapter 5. Scripting a Humane, Growth-Producing Conversation
Chapter 6. What If They Say . . . ? Possible Responses
Chapter 7. How to Be a Better Recipient of Feedback
Conclusion
Resource: Inspirational Quotes for Having Hard Conversations
References and Suggested Readings
Index

Editorial Reviews

Abrams, who cites a broad and current body of literature, provides a valuable rationale for why certain ways of talking are more effective than others.

Robert J. Garmston - Professor Emeritus & Co-Developer of COgnitive Coaching & Adaptive Schools

In order to grow as learners, educators and leaders, we need to be provided with feedback that will enhance our growth. That feedback doesn't come easily. We shy away from providing honest feedback because we're afraid it will be "taken the wrong way." That is why I love Having Hard Conversations 2.0. Jennifer Abrams brings us through the process beautifully with a great deal of honesty, and we can learn a great deal from her insight. This is an important read for anyone in education.

Peter De Witt - Former School Principal

Having Hard Conversations 2.0 Extending the Learning is definitely a book for our times. Jennifer Abrams has given us the why, what and how to have a productive and professional dialogue. Jennifer shares with us how to truly talk and interact with one another, to face and address issues professionally so that we can begin to create a culture for growth and improvement. Having hard conversations may not be comfortable for us, but they are even more necessary in our complex and changing world. This book is a must read for all of us!

Judy Newhouse - Executive Director

Hard Conversations 2.0: Extending the Learning delves deeper into the science and practice of effectively communicating introduced in the first book. Practitioners who have used her conversation templates previously will embrace the enhancements Jennifer offers throughout with specific examples, scenarios and tools. This takes the next step to encourage and support us in having those hard conversations with a humane growth-producing mindset.

Susan Thompson - Chief Human Capital Officer

Having Hard Conversations ‘2.0’ provides us with accessible research, reflective questions, effective frameworks and explicit language that empowers us to ‘speak up for what matters’ in our organizations. Whether adressing issues of performance or system change, this book helps us in our drive toward competence by clearly identifying what an appropriately planned hard conversation looks like, sounds like and feels like. Opportunities for guided self-reflection and a framework for scripting makes it possible for all members of an organization – positional leader or not – be ‘other-focused’ and engage in necessary hard conversations that are respectful, humane and growth producing and moves us all towards desired change.

Luciana Cardarelli - Education Leadership