Difficult Conversations

Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most

By Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen

I have probably marked and underlined between 25-50 different sections in this book. There is probably about the same amount of pages dog-eared. Considering that this is actually an assigned reading for one of my college courses, I actually found a lot of the information in this book to be useful. This book does not just focus on things like "how to talk to your kids about sex" or "how to break up with your girlfriend", but is really for everyday conversation and everyday use. It is not a book based on theory but is a book based on practicality. The book is really easy-to-read and avoids technical jargon. Most importantly, the steps the author's present to achieve greater clarification and understanding in conversations make sense. The main lesson I took from the book is that conversations are not about who's right or who's wrong. Conversations are about understanding one another.