We're excited to announce that Ron McMillan will be one of our presenters at the UPAA Symposium this Summer. Ron is the expert on training people how to communicate better in stressful situations with stressed out co-workers. If anybody could use some help in this area, university photographers could. Ron will speak in the Tuesday morning session. Check out the release below for more info:
Crucial conversations (conversations where stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong) happen every day and impact all of our results, yet few people invest in the skills for holding them well.
Studies show that the inability to discuss a problem can be more destructive than the problem itself. Issues like poor productivity, declining quality, lack of teamwork, or strained relationships are often the effects of crucial conversations that aren’t being held or aren’t being held well.
Learn to step up to high stakes conversations skillfully and respectfully and begin to resolve the problems by.
• Surfacing the best ideas
• Making important decisions
• Act on decisions with unity and commitment
Based on the New York Times bestselling book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High, with over one million copies sold, this presentation reflects over thirty years of research in the trenches of real organizations. Let Crucial Conversations skills help you achieve greater alignment, agreement, and productivity.
For more than twenty-eight years, Ron McMillan has helped union and first-level managers, CEOs, and corporate executives become measurably more vital by advising them on topics including team development, personal vitality, quality, communication, and results-oriented leadership. Cofounder of VitalSmarts, Ron has researched methods for driving rapid, sustainable, and measurable change in behaviors.
Ron is coauthor of three New York Times bestsellers, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High, and Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior. His fourth book, Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success, is scheduled for release in the spring of 2011.
Recognized as a subject-matter expert in influence, leadership, and workplace communication. Ron has been featured widely in the national media including NPR, Inc. magazine, and the New York Times.
A gifted speaker, Ron has appeared at hundreds of conferences, conventions, and management retreats such as the American Society of Training and Development, Human Resource Development, and Direct Selling Association. Additionally, Ron has spoken to executives at Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Nike, Saturn, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Sprint, Disney, Harley-Davidson, Providence Healthcare, and Intel. Ron’s unrivaled ability to delight a crowd and inspire his audience to improve their personal and professional lives has clients asking for his return again and again.
A pioneer in the training industry, Ron is the former cofounder of the Covey Leadership Center where he helped develop numerous training programs including Principle Centered Leadership and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In 2007, he and his coauthors were named Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year for their work in founding and leading VitalSmarts, a leader in corporate training and organizational development.
VitalSmarts has helped more than three hundred of the Fortune 500 realize significant results using a proven method for driving rapid, sustainable, and measurable change in behaviors. Named the 2008 Business of the Year by The Association of Learning Providers, VitalSmarts has also been ranked four times by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in America and has taught two million people worldwide.