Crucial Confrontations

Let s assume you ve been able to make it motivating. You jointly discussed consequences, you chose not to back off, and the other person has agreed to comply . The conversation is winding down. But you re not through. You have to do one more thing to ensure that you haven t wasted your time. Coming to an agreement is one thing; deciding what s going to happen from this point on requires one more step.

As you wrap up the confrontation, make a plan. Decide who will do what and by when. Then set a follow-up time in which you can check to see how things are going. (We ll examine how to do this in Chapter 7.)