what we do

shifting culture

If catastrophe is not looming overhead, it may be a good time for people in your organization to work proactively in shifting the corporate culture towards a preferred environment:

• Learning Tools- provide your team with the tools it needs to get the job done. We offer training and consulting services designed to address the root cause of issues that threaten your organizational well-being.
• Apply Them- learning isn’t the same as doing. Our training is ‘hands-on’ and interactive, so that your team will also experience the application of what they’re learning.

Training - Crucial Conversations®

When individuals, work teams, departments, and organizations aren’t getting the results they want, more often than not it’s because people are either not holding crucial conversations or not holding them well.

Learn how to have effective Crucial Conversations, when the stakes are high, sharing your ideas and concerns without reverting to obstructive forms of communication. Change patterns in relationships from withdrawal to engagement, from control to curiosity. We at tools for talking Inc can teach you to:

1. Identify the conversations that are keeping you from your desired results.
2. Identify and improve communication weaknesses.
3. Speak persuasively not abrasively, no matter the topic.
4. Make it safe for others to share their honest opinions.
5. Deal with people who either clam up or blow up.
6. Gain control of emotional responses.
7. Speak frankly without risking everything.
8. Disagree without being disagreeable.
9. Influence without exerting force.

Training- Creative Planning

Creative Planning is a process for focusing groups of people to develop effective rather than right or wrong (adversarial) answers in the development of ideas, master planning, problem solving, et cetera. It is a way to inject creativity into a project, often breathing fresh life into tired situations. The process prevents one person from dominating group discussions and allows new ideas to live long enough to be heard and considered, enlarging the possibilities and bringing new options into view.

Creative planning has enormous applications across a broad spectrum of management, marketing, manufacturing, planning and research needs. The benefits have been proven with companies ranging in size from "Fortune 500" companies and major Health Care Systems to individual entrepreneurs and families.

We at tools for talking Inc. can teach you to organize thinking, display ideas and clarify concepts rapidly. More importantly, it lets creativity flow in an organized, non-adversarial manner. The process is respectful, effective and engages skills that every team member can learn.

Facilitation- Strategic and Tactical Planning

A key shift takes place when your organization is able to move from a one that moves from crisis to crisis, and becomes one that deals with uncertainty by referring back to its long term, or strategic plan.

Unforeseen change can trigger a demand for quick decisions and strategic changes. An organization with a good tactical planning process is able to understand the resource impacts of its decisions.