How to Have Critical Conversations

Course Overview

Struggling to have high-stakes conversations? This short course provides personal development and practical skills to successfully manage a critical conversation toward creating better outcomes for all parties.

Having critical conversations to the best of your ability starts with being grounded and knowing how to express yourself. A strong sense of self coupled with the application of SACAP’s 10P Model will prepare you for difficult conversations.

Whether it is in our professional or personal lives, mastering critical conversations is an essential life skill. The good news is all of us can get better at it.

The How to Have Critical Conversations short course will help you build the rare mix of people skills and knowledge you need to successfully navigate through tough conversations. It will show you how to collaboratively work towards the best outcomes, while listening to others and hearing their perspectives.

So, how do we give these tricky conversations our best shot? Well, it starts with showing up. This is what the first part of the short course covers. The second part explores what skills you can apply to make difficult conversations go as well as possible.

Is this course for you?

If you want to develop the capabilities to have tough engagements in your personal and professional life – then this short course is for you.

Dates and Registration

• Class of 2025 January – March
• Class of 2025 April – June
• Class of 2025 July – September
• Class of 2025 October – December

Short course classes are on demand allowing you to register at any time and move through course content at a time that suits you. Learners will have access to the course for the class period they choose when registering.

Certification

Upon completion, you will receive a digital certificate of completion. This certificate verifies your newfound knowledge and skills.

The How to Have Critical Conversations short course has been designed and developed by experts in the field of psychology. The course is for anyone needing to upskill in this area and offers 20 hours of learning.

What You’ll Learn

Through course videos, readings and self-reflection activities, you will explore the following topics:

• How I show up in the world
  • Explore your own self-belief, how well you know yourself, your sense of self and its relationship to your authentic self, and being grounded in who you are.
• Why might I find critical conversations hard?
  • Consider the underlying reasons that may impact your approach to critical conversations.
• Expressing my voice
  • Speaking up and speaking truth to power.
• How to navigate a critical conversation – 10P Model 
  • Introducing SACAP’s 10P Model that covers 10 phases of critical conversations and their corresponding orientations and skills
• Performance review conversations  
  • How to make critical conversations work well.

Outcomes

By the end of this course you will have:

• Explored your sense of self and how you show up in the world.
• Considered what you may want to change about how you currently show up.
• Identified tools to help you be grounded.
• Analysed what may be getting in the way of you embracing critical conversations.
• Applied the skill of self-reflection.
• Explored how to navigate a critical conversation using the 10P model
• Applied the skills to have critical conversations.
• Evaluated your own skills against the 10P model and consider what you do well and what you want to improve on.