Crucial Conversations, both the book and the need to have them, came up at work this week. 

If you haven’t read the book, the authors define a crucial conversation as 

A discussion between two or more people where the stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong.

I’ve got this theory: Healthy shops are organizationally architected for the minimum number of crucial conversations. If you could plot the number of Crucial Conversations that need to happen in your shop over time, you’d have an inverse graph of your organizational health. 

WARNING: There is a consulting industry that’s emerged around this book, that, if you Google, you will quickly encounter. I’m neutral-to-wary.