Crucial Conversations was good for me, if for no other reason than it created a shared vocabulary for me to communicate with my boss.
The #1 I got out of it was to create safety. If someone doesn't feel safe, you're not getting the "real" them, you're getting their defensive self, which is usually an asshole. Everything else is about how you create that safety, but honestly it's not hard once you know what you're trying to do.
The problem is that creating safety takes effort, and a lot of times it's just not worth it...
The #1 I got out of it was to create safety. If someone doesn't feel safe, you're not getting the "real" them, you're getting their defensive self, which is usually an asshole. Everything else is about how you create that safety, but honestly it's not hard once you know what you're trying to do.
The problem is that creating safety takes effort, and a lot of times it's just not worth it...