For a crew of four jokesters, writing their second best-selling book, Crucial Confrontations, came naturally as another part of their series of materials to help people acquire skills needed to communicate effectively. Authors Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Kerry Patterson, and Al Switzler credit their success to years of conducting research, practicing what they preach, and injecting humor into the stuffy world of corporate consultants.
Crucial Confrontations debuted in the eleventh spot on The New York Times bestseller list in October 2004 and rose three more spots within one month. The book was also featured on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list, Amazon.com’s business list, and was named Book of the Year by Soundview Executive Book Summaries.
The concept began at VitalSmarts, a company the four founded to train organizations to communicate effectively. Combined, they have dedicated tens of thousands of hours searching out and studying hundreds of organizations’ most effective communicators. They’ve found out it’s not exactly what you say, but how you say it.
“I’ve spent thousands of hours with management teams and supervisory teams just watching them work,” Patterson says.
“We also did hundreds of hours actually going out with executives and interviewing other people and seeing how those dynamics were going on,” Switzler says.
As a group they work as equals. “We have mutual respect and we equally contribute. We divide and conquer,” Patterson says.
All four write, speak, and research effectively. Patterson says they aren’t like a rock band, each individual playing his own instrument. Instead they can all fill in for one another. This bond allowed them to be partners for twenty-five years in various combinations, despite their humble beginning in the back of a Volkswagen van eating fast food.
It is their wry sense of humor that Patterson says the world of consulting lacked. Many consultants feel they need to be “as serious as a heart attack.” Initially consultant trade publications criticized the group for poking fun at the foibles of the work place and for including family scenarios in their training. The group decided to do so because they felt having a late night confrontation with a teenager offered more practice opportunities than confronting a boss or co-worker.
