Critical Conversations Results-based Communication
Upcoming dates (3)
Fee
- $1,695
-
In-Person fee covers morning and afternoon breaks, scheduled lunches and course materials.
Online fee covers online course materials and instruction.
Discounts
10% discount per person for participants registered in the Technical Leadership Certificate series. Promo code needed during registration.
ID
RA01567-D360
Credits
- CEU: 1.4
- PDH: 14
Schedule
Registration Date/Time:
10/1/2025 7:30am Central Time
Event Dates/Times:
- 10/1/2025 8:00am - 4:30pm Central Time
- 10/2/2025 8:00am - 4:30pm Central Time
Course Notes
Purchase of the Help! I Need to Master Critical Conversations book is strongly recommended. The book can be purchased here.
Instructor
Trevor Manning
Location
Accommodations
Room: rates start at $185
Reserve by: Sep. 9, 2025
Topic:
Cancellation Policy
If you cannot attend, please notify us by no later than one week before your course begins, and we will refund your fee. Because this course has limited enrollment, cancellation received after this date and no-shows are subject to the full course fee. You may enroll a substitute at any time before the course starts. Once you have accessed the online course, exam and/or materials, no cancellations or refunds are permitted.
Course Overview
To achieve good outcomes in the workplace, we need all stakeholders to have open, clear and honest conversations with their team, bosses, peers and customers. Often conversations go wrong through misunderstandings and perceptions of ulterior motives. People are often aware that their conversations are not achieving the results they want but do not have any specific tools to improve them.
This course provides a communication framework to plan and have an effective conversation that achieves jointly satisfactory outcomes. It includes a step-by-step approach to having truthful conversations that deliver the real message without alienating anyone. The course is relevant to getting the most out of all day-to-day business conversations and especially relevant where an unwanted conflict in the workplace occurs.
In this course you will learn how to:
- Assess the true business outcome you want and how to achieve it
- Assess a situation and recognize when a conversation could become emotional
- Use a simple template to plan a conversation
- Follow a step-by-step model (5S-5F-3A) to deliver a difficult message safely
- Deploy advanced communication skills, including how to recover a conversation with unwanted conflict
- Leverage the art of storytelling in a business context
- Understanding how to avoid emotions derailing the conversation
- Ensure the desired business outcome is achieved after the conversation
Learning Outcomes
In this course you will learn how to:
- Assess the true business outcome you want and how to achieve it
- Assess a situation and recognize when a conversation could become emotional
- Use a simple template to plan a conversation
- Follow a step-by-step model (5S-5F-3A) to deliver a difficult message safely
- Deploy advanced communication skills, including how to recover a conversation with unwanted conflict
- Leverage the art of storytelling in a business context
- Understanding how to avoid emotions derailing the conversation
- Ensure the desired business outcome is achieved after the conversation
Who Should Attend?
This course will benefit anyone who needs to regularly communicate effectively, including:
- Newly appointed managers or team leaders directing technical professionals
- Experienced managers who are looking for ways to be effective and efficient
- Engineers and other technical professionals aspiring to management and leadership positions
- Project Managers with cross-functional teams
Additional Information
This course is part of the Technical Leadership Certificate. Course may be taken individually as well.
Course Outline
- Establishing a mutual goal
- Getting aligned to a shared business outcome
- Eliminating detracting secondary goals
- Recognizing what makes a conversation emotional
- Trigger words to avoid
- The role of unshared context
- Understanding the advanced 5S-5F-3A communication model
- Critical elements of advanced communications
- Making it emotionally safe to speak the brutal truth
- Advanced conversation skills, including listening and questioning
- Mastering storytelling
- Understanding the games we play
- Defusing the games they play
- Difficult conversations—dealing with the really tough cases
- Dealing with high conflict situations
- What to do when things go badly
- Toolkit of opening and recovery phases
Closing well – Getting agreed outcome and action plan
Instructor
Trevor Manning
Trevor Manning is an accomplished author, leaderhsip consultant, and trainer with extensive international experience leading technical teams. He has held roles such as chief engineer, technical director, Chief Operating Officer, and board advisor.
With a diverse background spanning various companites including a large government-owned utility, a US-headquartered manufacturer, an international London headquartered start-up, and a privately owned telecommunications operator, Trevor offers valuable insights into real-world business operations.
Trevor leads three training courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, focusing on practical insights derived from his wealth of experience.
Effectively Managing Technical Teams
Leadership Beyond Your Team: Managing Up and Across
Critical Conversations: Results-based Communication
Trevor has published several technical and leadership books and lives in Brisbane, Australia.
Critical Conversations Results-based Communication
Location: Madison, WI or Live Online
Course #: RA01567-D360
Fee: $1,695
Fee
- $1,695
-
In-Person fee covers morning and afternoon breaks, scheduled lunches and course materials.
Online fee covers online course materials and instruction.
Discounts
10% discount per person for participants registered in the Technical Leadership Certificate series. Promo code needed during registration.
Credits
- CEU: 1.4
- PDH: 14
Schedule
Registration Date/Time:
10/1/2025 7:30am Central Time
Event Dates/Times:
- 10/1/2025 8:00am - 4:30pm Central Time
- 10/2/2025 8:00am - 4:30pm Central Time
Course Notes
Purchase of the Help! I Need to Master Critical Conversations book is strongly recommended. The book can be purchased here.
Instructor
Trevor Manning
Location
Accommodations
Room: rates start at $185
Reserve by: Sep. 9, 2025
Topic:
Cancellation Policy
If you cannot attend, please notify us by no later than one week before your course begins, and we will refund your fee. Because this course has limited enrollment, cancellation received after this date and no-shows are subject to the full course fee. You may enroll a substitute at any time before the course starts. Once you have accessed the online course, exam and/or materials, no cancellations or refunds are permitted.
Critical Conversations Results-based Communication
Location: Online
Course #: RA01567-D773
Fee: $1,695
Fee
- $1,695
-
Fee covers course materials and online instruction.
Discounts
10% discount per person for participants registered in the Technical Leadership Certificate series. Promo code needed during registration.
QRM members receive 20% discount per person. Promo code needed during registration.
Credits
- CEU: 1.4
- PDH: 14
Schedule
Registration Date/Time:
2/2/2026 1:30pm Central Time
Event Dates/Times:
- 2/2/2026 2:00pm - 5:00pm Central Time
- 2/3/2026 2:00pm - 5:00pm Central Time
- 2/4/2026 2:00pm - 5:00pm Central Time
- 2/5/2026 2:00pm - 5:00pm Central Time
Course Notes
Purchase of the Help! I Need to Master Critical Conversations book is strongly recommended. The book can be purchased here.
Online course materials will be available approximately one week prior to the course date. Once you have accessed them through the online course site, no cancellations or refunds will be granted.
Instructor
Trevor Manning
Location
This is an online course.
Topic:
Cancellation Policy
If you cannot attend, please notify us by no later than one week before your course begins, and we will refund your fee. Because this course has limited enrollment, cancellation received after this date and no-shows are subject to the full course fee. You may enroll a substitute at any time before the course starts.
Critical Conversations Results-based Communication
Location: Madison, WI or Live Online
Course #: RA01567-D776
Fee: $1,695
Fee
- $1,695
-
This course has two attendance options, face-to-face or online.
Face-to-face attendance fee includes morning and afternoon breaks, scheduled lunches, and course materials.
Online attendance fee includes online instruction and course materials. Online attendees will access course sessions via the Zoom web conferencing platform.
Discounts
10% discount per person for participants registered in the Technical Leadership Certificate series. Promo code needed during registration.
QRM members receive 20% discount per person. Promo code needed during registration.
Credits
- CEU: 1.4
- PDH: 14
Schedule
Registration Date/Time:
9/16/2026 7:30am Central Time
Event Dates/Times:
- 9/16/2026 8:00am - 4:30pm Central Time
- 9/17/2026 8:00am - 4:30pm Central Time
Course Notes
Recommended Reading
Purchase of the Help! I Need to Master Critical Conversations book is strongly recommended. The book can be purchased here.
This is a HyFlex (in-person and online) taught course. Your registration is for one teaching platform only: in-person or online. Please be prepared to attend all days either in-person or online. Contact us if you have any questions or if you need to make a change.
Registration confirmation will guide students through accessing the Canvas course site.
Students will create and log in to the Canvas course site with a NetID. Course assets such as instructional materials, participation certificates, and course evaluations will be available to all students through the Canvas course site.
The course materials are all digital and only available on the Canvas course website.
Online attendees will access sessions via the Zoom web conferencing platform. The Zoom link will be provided a few days before the course.
Please watch the email address that you provide during registration for release dates and pre-course information.
Instructor
Trevor Manning
Location
Accommodations
Topic:
Cancellation Policy
If you cannot attend, please notify us by no later than one week before your course begins, and we will refund your fee. Because this course has limited enrollment, cancellation received after this date and no-shows are subject to the full course fee. You may enroll a substitute at any time before the course starts. Once you have accessed the online course, exam and/or materials, no cancellations or refunds are permitted.
Critical Conversations
Course #: RA01567Critical Conversations: Results-based Communication
Date: Mon. February 17, 2025 – Thu. February 20, 2025ID: RA01567-D356
Fee:
- $1,695
-
Fee covers course materials and online instruction.
Purchase of the Help! I Need to Master Critical Conversations book is strongly recommended. The book can be purchased here.
10% discount per person for participants registered in the Technical Leadership Certificate series. Promo code needed during registration.
- CEU: 1.4
- PDH: 14
Critical Conversations: Results-based Communication
Date: Wed. September 18, 2024 – Thu. September 19, 2024ID: RA01567-D096
Fee:
- $1,695
-
In-Person: Fee covers morning and afternoon breaks, scheduled lunches and course materials.
Online: Fee covers course materials and instruction.
Purchase of the Help! I Need to Master Critical Conversations book is strongly recommended. The book can be purchased here.
10% discount per person for participants registered in the Technical Leadership Certificate series. Promo code needed during registration.
- CEU: 1.4
- PDH: 14
Critical Conversations: Results-based Communication
Date: Tue. October 03, 2023 – Wed. October 04, 2023ID: RA01567-C770
Fee:
- $1,695
-
Fee covers morning and afternoon breaks, scheduled lunches, and course materials.
Purchase of the "Help! I Need to Master Critical Conversations" book is strongly recommended. The book can be purchased here: Amazon.com
10% discount person discount for participants registered in the Technical Leadership Certificate series. Discount Code needed during registration.
- CEU: 1.4
- PDH: 14