In-person conversation practice
Difficult conversations aren’t a knowledge problem. They’re a practice problem.
Most leadership training teaches people about difficult conversations. Frameworks. Models. Hypothetical discussions about what you might say if the situation arose.
But when the real moment arrives, when someone becomes defensive, or emotional, or simply shuts down, knowing what you should say and being able to say it are two entirely different things.
The Difficult Conversations Lab exists for that gap.
The in-person, practice-focused alternative to Human Leadership.
Where Human Leadership builds understanding and behaviour change over four to six weeks delivered remotely, the Lab is built to give leaders the experience and confidence to have the conversations they’ve been avoiding. One or two intensive days, in person, with a professional actor.
Some organisations choose one. Some choose both.
Why it works
A professional actor, not a colleague pretending to be difficult.
We don’t ask leaders to pair up and pretend. We work with a professional actor who responds as people genuinely do, becoming defensive, shutting down, pushing back, misunderstanding. The kind of responses that make a real conversation genuinely difficult.
A colleague pretending never quite cuts it
Practice only works if it’s genuinely hard. A colleague pretending to be difficult will unconsciously pull their punches. A professional actor won’t. Leaders face the real thing, in a space where it’s safe to get it wrong.
What this makes possible
Leaders leave having already had the conversation, in a space where the stakes were real enough to matter but safe enough to learn from. When the real moment arrives, they’re not facing it for the first time.
Before the lab begins
We start before the room opens.
A 1:1 with Jo for every participant
Before the Lab begins, every leader has a conversation with Jo individually. Not to complete a form or set an agenda, but to understand the real challenges each person is facing.
Not the sanitised version that appears in a group setting. The conversations they are genuinely struggling with.
Understand the real challenges, not the version people present in public
Ensure leaders arrive open to honest feedback and ready to step outside their comfort zone
Create the right mindset for genuine learning before the room even opens
The format
One day or two, depending on where you are.
The Lab is deliberately small, up to eight leaders, so everyone gets substantial practice time and nowhere to quietly disappear.
For leaders who have already worked with us and understand the core frameworks. The day moves quickly into extended conversation practice, strengthening and embedding what has already been learned.
Intensive. Fast-paced. Built for leaders who are ready to go straight into the work.
Day one
Understanding how each leader shows up when conversations get difficult. Exploring the behavioural traits that influence how people respond to pressure, conflict, and feedback, and beginning to recognise their own patterns.
Day two
Where everything comes together. Extended conversation practice using the tools from day one, building the confidence and fluency to use them in real life.
What leaders leave with
A small number of tools. Used immediately.
The Lab doesn’t give leaders a toolkit of twenty frameworks they’ll forget by Friday. It gives them four tools, practised until they’re fluent.
The Listening Cycle
Ask. Listen. Reflect. Then guide the conversation forward with genuine curiosity rather than a predetermined destination. The antidote to the leader who talks rather than listens in the moments that matter most.
Curiosity before judgement
Replace labels with questions. Keep people open rather than defensive. Find out what’s actually happening before deciding what it means. The difference between a conversation that unlocks something and one that shuts everything down.
Hold up the mirror
Help people see the impact of their behaviour, without attacking their character. The difference between feedback that opens things up and feedback that makes someone defensive for the next three weeks.
Disagree well
Challenge ideas without damaging trust. Bring a different view into the room in a way that the relationship can hold. The skill that determines whether your organisation has honest conversations or polite ones.
Is this right for you?
The Lab tends to be the right choice when:
Leaders delay difficult conversations, and everyone around them knows it.
Feedback gets softened before delivery until it says nothing useful.
Conflict sits below the surface, unaddressed, quietly shaping the culture.
Performance issues linger because the direct conversation keeps getting deferred.
You want the depth of Human Leadership but in person, and in a condensed format.
Culture isn’t built in strategy documents. It’s built in conversations, the ones you have, and the ones you avoid.
What participants say
“Seeing a colleague apply these tools in a real situation the very next day was extraordinary. Not just because of how well they did it, but because it worked on people who hadn’t done the training. We all left feeling genuinely heard. The outcome didn’t change, but our relationship to it had.”
Difficult Conversations Lab participant
“I have to run a disciplinary hearing this afternoon. I now feel totally equipped to deal with it.”
Difficult Conversations Lab participant
“It was simply brilliant. I went straight from the training to moderate a roundtable session without having to think about it.”
Difficult Conversations Lab participant
“Whatever the context, the same core skills apply. It’s about practising and trusting the same set of tools rather than reinventing the approach each time.”
Difficult Conversations Lab participant
“I’m already finding it super useful. Thank you for creating such a practical programme and an environment where we could all test new things without judgement.”
Difficult Conversations Lab participant
Two programmes. One philosophy.
Not sure which is right for you?
Both do the same fundamental thing: equip leaders to have the conversations that shape culture, performance, and trust. The difference is format and intensity.
Difficult Conversations Lab
One or two days. In person. Built to give leaders the experience and confidence to have the conversations they’ve been avoiding, until having them stops feeling difficult.
You’re already here ↑Human Leadership
Four to six weeks. Delivered remotely. Builds understanding, shifts behaviour over time, and gives leaders space between sessions to apply what they’re learning in real situations.
Explore Human Leadership →Ready to begin?
Ready to give your leaders somewhere to practise?
The Difficult Conversations Lab is delivered in-house, in person, one or two days depending on your starting point. Let’s start with a conversation about what your leaders are avoiding.
Book a call Explore Human Leadership