This difficult conversation training prepares managers and collaborators to lead sensitive discussions: corrective, hierarchical disagreement, personal subject, argued refusal. Over two days, you work on mental preparation, conversation structure, emotion management and useful conclusion. A rare skill that transforms professional relationships.
A well led discussion avoids three months of silent tensions
For profiles in French speaking Switzerland leading high stakes conversations (managers, HR, doctors, caregivers, key support functions), the course offers a concrete frame. Format with theory (Crucial Conversations, NVC), filmed role plays and personalized debrief. You leave with a preparatory plan applicable to your next conversations.
High stakes conversations are at the heart of manager and demanding relational role. Yet few cursus address them explicitly. This course offers a structured approach drawing on reference works (Patterson, Stone, Rosenberg). In Geneva and Lausanne, the course welcomes managers, HR, caregivers and founders.
Many tensions accumulate for lack of timely open discussion. The course offers a grid identifying conversations to start: performance, behavior, strategic disagreement, personal request. A spotting that sobers and orients, taking the subject out of the “we’ll see later” zone.
Poorly prepared difficult conversation often fails. The course details preparation: clarify objective, anticipate reactions, choose moment, frame emotional intention. A step that changes everything, often avoiding escalation from the opening of the exchange.
A high stakes discussion benefits from clear structure: opening, factual formulation, listening, common exploration, decision. The course works this on real cases with focus on opening, often decisive. You leave with key phrases to adapt to your style.
Emotion (yours, the other’s) is unavoidable in high stakes conversation. The course details techniques to stay centered (breathing, pause, cognitive reframe) and welcome the other’s without drowning. A rare skill that distinguishes managers lasting in time.
An unconcluded conversation opens the next. The course works commitment formulation, follow up scheduling and minimal documentation. So discussion produces lasting change rather than passing relief. With focus on cold return after a few days, anchoring decision.
Managers, HR, doctors, caregivers, key support functions, founders, technical leads and any role with regular sensitive conversations. In Geneva and Lausanne, the course welcomes profiles from international organizations, healthcare, consulting and public services. No specific prerequisite.
You identify pending conversations in your team or perimeter, prepare each difficult conversation in less than thirty minutes with a clear canvas, hold the opening of the discussion without confronting, and conclude with traced commitments. You leave with a kit (preparation canvas, opening phrases, relaunch grid) and an action plan on two or three conversations to lead in the month.
At ITTA centers in Geneva and Lausanne, this course runs over two days with a senior management trainer. Format with concise theory, filmed role plays (with agreement), personalized debrief after each exercise and individual action plan. Format alternates short framework inputs, intensive role plays based on real cases, filmed practice and trainer-personalized debrief. Beyond the course, you keep a preparation canvas, opening phrases and a personal action plan calibrated on two or three real conversations to lead in the month.
A performance corrective leading to shared action plan instead of rupture. A strategic disagreement with N+1 treated as adult discussion instead of silent tension. A difficult feedback to client maintaining relation instead of breaking it. The course addresses these three situations in filmed role plays.
This course combines well with conflict management (course 14358) for multi-party dynamics, feedback manager (course 23174) for regular returns, and emotional intelligence (course 14363) for the emotional dimension. Many participants enroll in one of these courses.
Conversations avoided do not disappear, they accumulate as silent debt: deteriorated trust, lost productivity, sometimes departure of the best collaborators. The course briefly maps this cost to legitimize early intervention, often the cheapest in absolute terms.
The single biggest predictor of difficult conversation success is preparation. Even thirty minutes of structured prep changes the trajectory of the exchange: clearer opening, more solid factual frame, better anticipated reactions. The course makes preparation a habit rather than an exception, with templates short enough to actually be used.
Difference with conflict management?
Conflict management treats dynamics between several. Difficult conversation targets bilateral high stakes exchange, whether or not in open conflict situation.
For which profiles?
Managers, HR, doctors, caregivers, key support functions, founders and any role with regular sensitive conversations.
Real cases in role plays?
Yes, each participant arrives with a situation. Confidentiality held, personalized return.
Does it integrate video conversations?
Yes, remote specifics (camera gaze, remote silence management, screen share) are integrated in dedicated sequence.
Need to be manager?
No, the course is useful to any role leading sensitive conversations, whether management, HR, client relations or accompaniment.
What if I dread the other’s reaction?
It is precisely what the course works on. Mental preparation, moment choice, factual opening and emotion welcome techniques strongly reduce escalation risk and provide solid frame even facing unexpected reaction.
What follows?
For more, ITTA proposes courses on conflict management, feedback manager and emotional intelligence.
Is the course adapted to remote and hybrid contexts?
Yes, with a dedicated sequence on remote difficult conversations: camera management, silence handling, written follow-up to anchor the decision.
What about cross-cultural difficult conversations?
The Geneva and Lausanne international context is addressed, with specific attention to cultural differences in conflict expression and direct feedback styles.
Where do sessions take place?
ITTA has three centers: in Geneva (Carouge, Route des Jeunes 35), in Lausanne at the Flon (Rue des Côtes de Montbenon 16) and at Lausanne Mon-Repos (Avenue de Mon-repos 24). The training is also available in virtual classroom.
Monday to Friday
8:30 AM to 6:00 PM
Tel. 058 307 73 00
ITTA
Route des jeunes 35
1227 Carouge, Suisse
Monday to Friday, from 8:30 am to 06:00 pm.
