Legal Research

"Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time"

Posted by Julia Fleming: "Have you ever been in one of those deadly conversations in which a lot of words fly about and yet nothing happens?  Or when decisions are made and strategies are crafted, but everyone sitting around the table knows that nothing will actually change because everyone is talking around the real problem?  What a waste of time!

Fierce Conversations revolves around the "Mineral Rights conversation."  This simple 7-step process can be used to get to the truth of a situation, create understanding about it, tackle the challenges in the situation, and enrich relationships in the process.  The seven steps (with some sample questions) are:

1. Identify the most pressing issue...
2. Clarify the issue...
3. Determine the current impact...
4. Determine the future implications...
5. Examine your contribution to this issue...
6. Describe the ideal outcome...
7. Commit to action...  

The critical tactic to make a Mineral Rights conversation a success is to ask questions and not to comment on the answers until you've completed step 7...

And, as the author writes, allow silence to do the heavy lifting...

Imagine having a Mineral Rights conversation with a client, or having a modified version of it with a potential client...

Fierce Conversations also includes other tools, including an exceptionally useful model for determining decision-making authority, which I previously described on the Life at the Bar Blog.  Please click here to read that post."

Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Life at the Bar, 12 August 2009

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on August 12, 2009 (boomark / email).