[Music] if you could change just one thing in your company culture one thing that would make the biggest difference in your ability to execute on your mission and innovate consistently for the future what would it be at vital smarts we've been asking that question for 30 years we found that how your people behave in one kind of moment indicates the success you will have in just about everything else employee engagement productivity safety compliance innovation you name it let's see one of these crucial moments it's about time we started holding people's feet to the fire we can't disappoint our customers again where exactly do we stand with a little luck we might just get the features worked out in our final beta there's still a chance but if we don't succeed we're in big trouble you're watching what we refer to as a crucial conversation the stakes are high opinions vary and emotions run strong are you kidding we're already in big trouble and I'm not gonna take the heat because you artists in product development screwed up again no need to be snippy Bruce can't help it if they're missing some essential skills they work real hard sorry to have to say this but everyone knows that when you set a date and even a grade schooler can tell you this you keep your date it's what adults do can we spend some time on our current situation and the choice we have to make now people facing these types of conversations aren't always so outspoken or negative truth is most often people go silent and let their emotions Fester creating a whole host of other issues most corporations lose between 10 and 30 percent of their potential profits due to transaction costs every time you revisit a decision that has already been made it costs money and the hours spent bickering and politicking after a meeting is over can be enormous ly costly you've seen the impact you end up having to deal with some tension in the environment sometimes we wouldn't know that there were concerns until the grievances were actually filed Johnsonville was growing very rapidly that came with a lot of challenges we didn't want to lose our culture and we wanted to maintain the safer workplace when it came to holding each other accountable people weren't stepping into those tough conversations we spent a lot of time in meetings we called it the Groundhog Day meetings we talked about the same thing over and over again it doesn't have to be this way our conversations don't have to lead to disaster in the situation we just saw what if a couple of people applied crucial conversation skills to the same meeting with the outcome be different it's about time we started holding people's feet to the fire we can't disappoint our customers again Melanie I share your concern I don't want to disappoint our customers and I don't want to put our revenue goals of risk what I do want to do is to discuss our current circumstances as a team and come up with a plan that works for all of us by applying a few crucial conversation skills the meeting did take a different and healthier path instead of spiraling down as people piled onto each other the team was able to get at the root of the problem and come to a jointly shared resolution performance reflects leadership and when a leader helps employees learn the skills of speaking honestly and directly and making it safe for others to do the same everyone benefits no matter how heated or controversial the topics may be we've seen a 16 percent increase in members willingness to engage each other on simple differences of opinion and we've seen a 13 percent increase in their willingness to stay engaged when their views or opinions are challenged and that's great for business since we had the Crucial Conversations training we have less reluctance to address issues and concerns the numbers of grievances filed drop crucial conversations started to change the culture within the organization st. joseph´s improved hand hygiene rates from 40% to over 80% at Johnsonville employees willingness to correct unsafe work environments went up 25% and in a San Antonio Independent School District as a result of learning to hold each other accountable employees were a hundred and 60 percent more consistent in dealing with problem employees each of these companies and many more from the fortune 500 list and credit Crucial Conversations training for these successes given a new skill set people trade in their old habits of silence and violence and move to healthy dialogue they now talk most importantly they talk about high stakes issues and when they're caught early and resolved quickly the impact on key performance indicators everything from productivity to quality to safety can be profound at vital smarts we have 30 years of research and practice making leaders and their organizations stronger and more profitable by teaching people the skills they need to work in high paced high demand industries [Music] you