The Official Handbook of Navigating Challenging Dialogue®
Turn This Conversation Around
The 4-Stage Process for Communication with Connection
Our ability to dialogue is essential to how we work, solve problems, and connect. Yet we are increasingly facing communication that feels more like a debate. With emotionally charged conversations, we may dig into our position trying to be heard and understood. When we’re weary of conflict, we start avoiding conversations altogether. Either way, healthy communication breaks down. Everyone is left unsatisfied, often with damaged relationships.
It’s possible to have positive, productive conversations — even when you may not agree. Beth Wonson teaches you how to use the proven tools of Navigating Challenging Dialogue®, and the NCD Process, to turn your conversations around using real-world examples of fractured trust and unhealthy conflict.
- Navigating Challenging Dialogue® is a toolkit for building trust by developing self-awareness, emotional self-regulation, empathy, and curiosity — the skills necessary to be effective in communication and leadership.
- The NCD Process is a framework for fact-based dialogue, even when communication feels risky.
Beth’s process has helped hundreds of individuals and organizations to clearly communicate in ways that create connections, build bridges, and get results.
Print Length: 180 pages
Published: Sep. 12, 2022
Author: Beth Wonson
Praise for Turn This Conversation Around
〝Navigating Challenging Dialogue provided incredible insight into my own leadership communication strengths and weaknesses, and provided the critical skills necessary to effectively navigate challenging conversations. The result was less drama and chaos, an increased focus on organizational goals, and a workplace culture that values direct communication and open and honest feedback. I credit Beth’s Navigating Challenging Dialogue courses for my success as a leader, especially during the pandemic when most conversations in public education were challenging. If being a great communicator is on your list of leadership goals, taking the Navigating Challenging Dialogue courses with Beth is a must!”
— TODD SIMENDINGER LEADERSHIP COACH & CONSULTANT
〝I think this book is a game changer in having challenging conversations with others. It offers ways to center yourself, streamline the conversation to facts, stay on point while being curious about the other person’s point of view and react to whatever happens in the conversation in a clean and clear manner. This method is not about changing other people…it’s about having meaningful dialogue, building trust and moving forward in whatever way is best.
I highly recommend this! I’ve used a couple of the principles for the past two years and it has been very helpful. This book pulls it all together with a blueprint for having these conversations.”
— LISA DAY-COPELAND, VERIFIED PURCHASE – AMAZON
〝What sets Wonson’s book out from the other million or so I’ve read in my 35 years in HR, is how immediately useful it is. The language is clear, and the guidance through the 4 stages is supported by real-life examples we all can relate to. I wish I’d had this book 35 years ago.”
— BETSEY NASH, SPHR, SHRM-SCP NASH HR SERVICES (RETIRED)
〝As someone who’s historically struggled with tough conversations and felt powerless when they didn’t go as planned, “Turn This Conversation Around” completely shifted my perspective and gave me the tools to successfully engage in tough conversations, understand how to manage my own energy, and avoid the pitfalls and cognitive shortcuts that interfere with clear and clean communication!!!!””
— SIMS, VERIFIED PURCHASE – AMAZON
〝The manual also does a good job of providing scripts that readers can employ when they need to pause a conversation in order to regain control of their own emotions. The volume’s many anecdotes are well chosen and serve to illustrate the more abstract concepts in Wonson’s framework, making it easy for readers to adapt it to their own needs. While the fundamentals of the process will be familiar to those who have read other works on healthy communication, the author’s clear explanations of how she came to understand and apply the common concepts make for an effective introduction. She builds a solid case throughout the text for the value of following the steps she enumerates. A thoughtful and well-written explanation of how to communicate.”
— KIRKUS REVIEWS (READ FULL REVIEW)
〝It blew my mind how complicated we make things and how simple it really can be when we just strip everything away and get down to the facts. EVERYONE needs this. Every manager, leader, parent, teacher, coach, counselor … basically, anyone who communicates with others needs this.”
— BECKY GRAY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MUST! CHARITIES
About the Author, Beth Wonson
Beth developed the Navigating Challenging Dialogue® (NCD) process out of a desire to help herself become a better manager, leader, parent, and friend. As she began working with the tools she developed, she got requests to help people, teams, and organizations become better at having tough – but essential – conversations.
In 2010, Beth Wonson & Company was launched. Since then, Beth has been speaking, coaching, mentoring, and training individuals and teams. Now, Fortune 500s, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and schools use the tools and strategies of NCD to become communicators who empower others through meaningful, drama-free conversations.
NCD is now a proven tool for improving culture, clarity, and retention in organizations. To reach even more people, Beth has now published two books for implementing NCD:
- Turn This Conversation Around: The 4-Stage Process for Communication with Connection
- Mastering Feedback: Everything You’ve Never Been Told About How to Give Feedback
Beth speaks nationally about the urgent need to have high-stakes conversations in healthy ways, even with people we don’t agree with. “Until we learn to listen with curiosity, build empathy, and focus on the good of the whole when having tough conversations, we will not be able to move the needle on our most complex challenges.”
