This is Stevea Robbins.

Welcome to the Get It Done guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Today, we're going to master difficult conversations.

Europa unfortunately mixed up several purchase orders for Bernice's plant stores, green-growing

things one and two. Deliveries were made to the wrong addresses,

and by the time it was all sorted out, new purchases had been made, inventory was duplicated,

and everything was a mess. The cost overrun is high enough that Bernice really wants Europa to pick up half the bill. Every time she sees Europa, she gets a sinking feeling in the

pit of her stomach, because Europa's her friend, and she hates

the idea of bringing up the topic. So instead, she comes into my office and tells me,

corners Melvin in the stock room and tells him, discusses it with her friends outside work,

and pretty much hashes over the situation with everyone except Europa. Sound familiar?

As far as I can tell, the number one strategy that people have for dealing

with difficult conversations with each other is to avoid having difficult conversations with

each other. And what happens when you avoid having a difficult conversation? As far as I can tell,

it almost always makes things even more difficult. My friend Ashley has been in a long-term

relationship that came to an abrupt end when the

significant other, who will call Evil Shmoopy, for short, announced out of the blue that

they were breaking up. Now, what multiplied the trauma for poor Ashley is that evil Shmoopy

had said during multiple recent relationship discussions that the relationship was fine and that

long-term was the way to go.

So not only did Ashley not see this coming, but evil Shmoopy turbocharged to the missile before firing it. But when you're old and wise like me, you've been down both sides of that particular

missile. Well, wait a minute. How many sides does a missile have anyway?

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