Typically, a publisher screaming at an author over the phone would be considered an unpleasant experience, but in Kerry Patterson’s case, it was just the opposite.
The publisher was excited because Patterson’s book, Crucial Conversations, coauthored with Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler, had made its debut on the New York Times’ best-seller list. The book, whose authors are all alumni of BYU, came out in June. Within weeks, it was the fifth best-selling business paperback book, according to the New York Times.
Patterson says the book is a result of consulting with organizations for twenty years. “We stumbled upon it—the idea of crucial conversations—accidentally,” he says. “We were teaching dialogue skills before we came up with the language of crucial conversations. It became important because we realized it was probably the single most important predictor of success in organizations.”
Knowing how to tactfully say something is a talent, Patterson says, a skill that could resolve a great deal of conflicts. “Every time we bomb somebody it is because we can’t figure out how to work it through. We spend money developing people who can design bombs, but we should be spending money developing people who can talk,” Patterson says.
