Alicia Davis
Okay, if you are out there in our community and you have to have a difficult conversation… I’m telling you there is something in the air, Stacie, because I know we’ve talked about this like not that long ago – February -and yet this continues to come up on our radar over and over and over again about the challenge of difficult conversations. And we wanted to talk about it again.

Stacie Watson
Yeah, it’s so true. I was just saying, I think our phones are ringing off the hook. Virtual phones are ringing off the hook, you know, with people asking us about this particular topic, and what’s interesting is I think initially, as we thought about this topic, a lot of what came up had to do with kind of manager-staff difficult conversations, performance-related difficult conversations…

Alicia Davis
Right.

Stacie Watson
And really, what I think we’re learning and appreciating in the conversations we’re having with people in our community is that difficult conversations go in all directions with many different stakeholders. Right? It can be with clients. It can be with the parents of clients. It can be with you know boards. You know the list goes on and on. And one of the things I think we haven’t really given too much attention to, and we’ve been thinking deeply about, is what does it cost us to not have the conversation? We kind of think about it as the cost of silence. So I don’t know, what do you think about that?

Alicia Davis
Well, you know, when we are silent about things that are important, I think that there is an internal drain that happens for us. Like I know, for me, I can just perseverate on it. I can be like, there’s a lot of brain energy that goes into holding space for that processing. Like, what’s going on? Why can’t I do it? What’s the other person gonna, you know, what’s the other person gonna say or do? And the cost of that is, think, multiple, right? It takes our attention away from either things that we need to be doing or other conversations that we need to be having, right? It can impact morale. You know, if there’s if there’s misunderstandings or people just don’t have information. You know, I think that there are lots of ways that a deficit really happens when we’re not kind of stepping into these conversations.

Stacie Watson
Yeah, it’s so true, and I think it’s easy to sort of overlook that piece because we’re so caught up in whatever the issue is or whatever the concern is, and it makes perfect sense. These aren’t easy conversations often, and we do have lots of feelings about that. And if you’re interested in that aspect of it, go back and find some of what we talked about in February, because we really talked about kind of the internal piece to this. I guess our invitation this week is really just for those of you listening who are thinking, you know, I really do have a difficult conversation that I’ve been putting off or maybe avoiding. Really, to just think about what that might be costing you personally or professionally in terms of the role that you have, and maybe even others on the team, and again, not to bring blame or shame, but just to raise awareness. You know, when we don’t do these things for all kinds of reasons that make sense, often there are some, you know, outcomes or consequences that come along with that. So it’s just an interesting thought exercise.

Alicia Davis
Yeah, that ripple effect happens. Yeah…

Stacie Watson
Exactly!

Alicia Davis
So please, so please email us at info@tlstransforms.com. We’d love to hear your thoughts about this topic. You know, what’s top of mind for you? What do you think about this? You know, from a cost perspective, we’re just constantly evolving our curriculum, and we want to weave it through… So info@tlstransforms.com …I’m Alicia Davis.

Stacie Watson
I’m Stacie Watson.

Alicia Davis
Thanks so much. We’ll talk to you soon.

Stacie Watson
Thank you.