Preston McCauley

@uidesignguide uidesignguide.comclearsitedesigns.com prestonmccauley.com

Ways To Reach Me:

Conflict & ConversationsConversation: A Verbal expression of ideas, opinions, and emotions between two or more people.

Monday, June 18, 12

What Will We Explore?

■ What Am I About?

■ The Impact of Conversational Problems

■ A Look Into Conversations

■ Behaviors To Practice

■ Key Reminders

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PracticePractice, Practice, Practice

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The Impact of Conversational Problems

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Impact : Stress

■ Pain & Suffering

■ Lower Energy Levels

■ Uncontrollable Feelings

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■ According To: AMA © 2012 American Heart Association, Inc.

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6Impact: Motivational Loss

■ “Why bother” attitude sets in

■ Decreased productivity

■ Fun work becomes less exciting

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7How do you avoid these?

■ Pain & Suffering

■ Lower Energy Levels

■ Uncontrollable Feelings

■ “Why bother” attitude sets in

■ Decreased productivity

■ Fun work becomes less exciting

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8Clients From Hell

■ How would you react to these statements if they were directed at you?

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9Clients From Hell

■ "The only thing that you can do is take your design and throw it in the fucking garbage!"

■ "It’s perfect! Just one thing. We have that contact form on Contact Us page, I want you to remove that and give our email address instead. And make it into a riddle so they have to solve it to get the email. We want to ‘engage’ our visitors."

■ "I’m not paying you anything extra to do the website because it is simply a matter of pushing the right buttons. I know how to push buttons."

Source: Clientsfromhell.net

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Clients From HellReturn To Hades

■ CLIENT: I’m not too sure about the blue…

■ ME: Actually, that’s green.

■ CLIENT: Who’s the client?

■ ME: You.

■ CLIENT: And what color is it?

■ ME: …blue?

■ CLIENT: Right. Now let me see what other shades of blue we have. We settled on pine-tree ”blue.

Source: Clientsfromhell.net

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11Clients From Hell

■ What might be your next line of dialog?

■ Do you feel you were crafting a response to the uncomfortable situation or responding more out of instinct?

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A Look Into ConversationsA Verbal expression of ideas, opinions, and emotions between two or more people.

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Audience Activity

■ FIND A PERSON NEXT TO YOU

■ DESIGNATE ONE PERSON THE TALKERShould be the only only one talking.

■ THE OTHER PERSON BECOMES THE LISTENERInstead of talking you should be taking notes about anything you find interesting about the talker. Things like behavior, eye twitches, voice inflection, etc....

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Audience Activity

■ THE TALKER SCENARIO:You are the executive upset with the design manager missing a crucial timeline this morning. This slip delays the product launch. The company will lose thousands of dollars each day the product doesn’t launch. This is not the first time this has happened.

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■ Be Vocal

■ Be Over The Top

■ Be Hysterical

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Audience Activity

■ GUESS THE BEHAVIORNow comes the hard part. The talker must try and guess what items the The listener wrote down.

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Audience Activity

■ Did you discover that it was hard to identify your own behavior?

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Mini Recap

■ Conversations Cause Negative & Positive Impact

■ No Two Situations Are Alike

■ Understanding & Controlling Behavior is Key

■ Practice

■ “Clients From Hell Site” is awesome!

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Problem Conversation Types

■ Known Conversations

■ The Unknown Conversations

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Monday, June 18, 12

Patrick Stewart

“During the course of seven years I played scenes with an oil slick,

I played a scene with a grain of rice.

Sometimes with indescribable creatures.

I remember having a conversation with something which was simply a smell, that's all.

It was part of our job.”

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Unknown Conversations

■ Hallway Conversations

■ Poop & Swoop

■ Employee Issues

■ Financial Problems

■ Marital Problems

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Primal Instincts 21

“Under great stress the process of thinking is usually characterized by loss of concentration, inability to perceive new information(to learn), hampered short-term memory, lack of initial planning of your actions..

Think Quest

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In A Critical Conversation

■ Your Pulse Quickens

■ Confusion Sets in

■ Decision Making is Difficult

■ Emotions on Autopilot

■ Adrenaline Fueled

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How Can You Control A Critical Conversation? 23

? ??

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C.A.L.M 24

Control Your BreathingAssess Your GoalLook For SignsMove Towards Your Goal

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Control Your Breathing 25

■ 1, 2 , 3 - Deep Breaths

■ Reduce Your Stress Level

■ Bring Clarity Back to Your Brain

■ Start to Form and Evaluate Your Thoughts

■ Isolate Your Emotions

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Assess Your Goal 26

■ What’s Your True Goal?

■ Is It Achievable in This Conversation?

■ What Conversational Paths Must We Take To Reach It?

■ Avoid Goal Jumping

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Look For The Signs 27

■ Behavioral & Verbal Cues

■ Goal Jumping

■ Stalemates

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Move Towards Your Goal 28

■ Form Positive Conversation Paths

■ Avoid Goal Jumping

■ Set An Action Plan

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Conversational Techniques 29

■ ESTABLISH SAFETYIs the conversation hostile?

■ COMPARE & CONTRASTI know how you might feel this way, but I’m really trying...

■ AVOID AVOIDANCEDon’t put off a critical conversation too long.

■ SET EXPECTATIONSClearly define your expectations

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5 Keys To SuccessfulConversation! 30

■ STAY C.A.L.M

■ KNOW YOUR BEHAVIORWhat happens when you get into a conversation

■ KNOW YOUR GOALKnow what you want to get from the conversation

■ DEFINE AN ACTION PLANDefine what should happen after the conversation

■ ACCOUNTABILITYHold each party accountability for the action.

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Resources To Further Your Knowledge 31

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Successful ConversationsA Verbal expression of ideas, opinions, and emotions between two or more people.

“BE A BAD ASS LIKE WALT”

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Successful ConversationsA Verbal expression of ideas, opinions, and emotions between two or more people.

■ Pete Radocaj

■ bottled_void

■ HAROLDO FERRARI-HAROLDO ...

■ anitakhart

■ Goldmund100

IMAGE ATTRIBUTION - Flickr Creative Commons

Monday, June 18, 12

Preston McCauley

@uidesignguide uidesignguide.comclearsitedesigns.com prestonmccauley.com

Ways To Reach Me:

Successful ConversationsA Verbal expression of ideas, opinions, and emotions between two or more people.

Monday, June 18, 12