The authors of Crucial Conversations furnish a selection of tools to help resolve touchy, controversial issues in the office and at home, including how to determine whether an issue is worth confronting, how to avoid jumping to nasty conclusions, how to decide which problems to handle and in what order, and how to motivate people without threats. Original. 100,000 first printing.The authors show how to achieve personal, team, and organizational success by healing broken promises, resolving violated expectations, and influencing bad behavior. Behind the problems that routinely plague organizations and families, you'll find individuals who are either unwilling or unable to deal with failed promises. Others have broken rules, missed deadlines, failed to live up to commitments, or just plain behaved badly--and nobody steps up to the issue. Or they do, but do a lousy job and create awhole new set of problems. Accountability suffers and new problems spring up. New research demonstrates that these disappointments aren't just irritating, they're costly--sapping organizational performance and accounting for most divorces. This book teaches you how to deal with violated expectations in a way that solves the problem at hand, and doesn't harm the relationship--and in fact, even strengthens it.--From publisher description.