Tough Conversations™ for Frontline Staff

Learn practical skills for managing difficult, emotional or hostile situations

Expected learning outcomes

• Reasonable expectations to hold about a persons ability to exert self-control so that you can respond appropriately.
• An understanding of what constitutes ‘normal’ versus ‘abnormal’ in behaviour.
• How to describe a problem using a template approach.
• Important conflict resolution one-liners to recall when managing a tough conversation.
• What the research is saying about great customer service and satisfaction.
• What you can do to assist someone to regain control.
• How to factually and reliably record an incident in the case of further reporting.
• Practise at completing the re-useable worksheets.

Lesson framework

• Why people overreact.
• Self-control factors in adults.
• How ‘frustration tolerance’ develops in people.
• What to tolerate: sorting out what behaviour to let go and what needs your attention.
• A step-by-step process to address a problem.
• Three scenarios and how to record the facts of the matter to pass onto superiors.
• How to deal with people who come already heightened and how to manage someone who gets upset mid-conversation.
• How to tame tigers – effectively dealing with offensive behaviour and what to say to defuse strong emotions.
• A video demonstration of the concepts applied to a tough conversation between a member of the public and frontline staff.

Please note that this is not a train-the-trainer course and it is not designed for the subsequent on-training of other workers at your workplace.