I recently took a "Crucial Conversations" course, and this book was one of the tools provided to us by the instructor.

I benefited tremendously from the course, and the book is an outstanding primer on the tools that will help us deal with difficult conversations in high stakes environments. However, I think that it would be difficult to employ these tools without having the hands-on practice that we experienced in the classroom setting (which is why I knocked off a star).

These are highly useful techniques for dealing with crucial conversations (differing opinions + high emotions + high stakes), but having the opportunity to practice those techniques *before* you need them is what really does the trick.

In any event, this book has a place on my office bookshelf, next to BE OUR GUEST: Perfecting the art of customer service, Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun and Making Work Work: New Strategies for Surviving and Thriving at the Office. Highly recommended.