Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves and Each Other to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected
Jim Knight
Think about how many times you’ve walked away from school conversations, sensing they could be more productive, but at a loss for how to improve them. Better Conversations honors our capacity for improving our schools by improving our communication. Asserting that our schools are only as good as the conversations within them, Jim Knight shows us how to adopt the habits essential to transforming the quality of our dialogues.
Purchase the Book:
“I wrote this book to describe the person I want to be. I also wrote it because I believe most people feel the same. We all want to be better, and we fall short. I wanted to write something that honestly acknowledged our own difficulties with communication but that also offered a pathway forward. This book also draws on the work of wise and insightful authors whose books on communication are packed with excellent advice.”
– Jim Knight
Conversations Should Be Life-Giving
01
Radical Brokenness and Better Conversations
What is a better conversation?
Beliefs and habits
Learning to have better conversations.
02
The 6 Better Conversations Beliefs
Seeing conversation partners as equals
Hearing what others have to say
People should have autonomy
Don’t judge others
Conversations should be back and forth
Conversations should be life-giving
03
Listening With Empathy
Demonstrating empathy
We struggle to listen
Getting better at listening.
04
Fostering Dialogue
What is dialogue?
Why dialogue is difficult
How to foster dialogue
05
Asking Better Questions
Better questions
Getting better at questioning
06
Connecting
Making emotional connections
Being a witness to the good
07
Finding Common Ground
The psychology of separateness
Strategies for finding common ground
08
Redirecting Toxic Words and Emotions
Controlling our emotions
Redirecting toxic conversations
09
Building Trust
Trust factors
Trust: putting it all together
Learn 6 Beliefs and 10 Habits to Improve Your Communication
Expand Your Learning
Explore our other resources to learn more about Instructional Coaching. We offer a variety of workshops, PDFs, informational videos and more.
This one day workshop introduces 6 beliefs and 10 habits to communicate messages clearly, promote healthy and productive relationships, and maneuver emotionally complex situations with truth.
This on demand course is a great place to begin your exploration of Better Conversations or support your learning if you’ve already taken the workshop. The course includes short lessons where Jim explains some of the key concepts from Better Conversations, to make it easy for you to explore how to have better conversations.
These appendices contain standards, rubrics, feedback forms, self-evaluation forms, administrator forms, Impact Cycle checklist, and a candidate evaluation form intended to support the learning in the book and workshop.
A one hour webinar based on the book Better Conversations
Organizations Are Only As Good As Their Conversations
At ICG, we truly believe that better conversations will lead to improvement in our professional and personal lives so we follow the beliefs & habits outlined in this book. Good communication is imperative to our team’s effectiveness and we strive to promote healthy dialogue in all our interactions.
Read About Other Success Factors
Our research has helped us identify seven success factors that are essential for developing and sustaining a great coaching program. Success Factor #2 is Communication. View Jim Knight’s collection of books to learn about his research and other success factors.
