Vortolo officially launches Conversations Under Pressure Workshops
There are conversations you know you need to have and others you’ve been putting off for months.
-A disagreement with a senior colleague that never quite gets resolved.
-A committee member who keeps challenging your decisions.
-Two departments that have stopped listening to each other.
-A business relationship that’s deteriorating, despite everyone’s best efforts to remain professional.
-And sometimes, a conversation where the other person holds considerably more power than you do.
These situations are rarely improving by themselves.
And rehearsing the perfect conversation in your head rarely prepares you for what the other person might actually say.
More often than not, beneath the conversation, there are other things going on: Competing interests, previous history, trust, cultural differences, personal agendas, wounded egos and questions about who actually gets to decide.
That’s why I’m officially introducing a new Vortolo service:
Conversations Under, Pressure
Tricky conversation workshops for leaders.
The idea is straightforward.
Preparing the conversation before the stakes are real.
We begin with situations that participants are actually facing. We examine the relationships, the interests, the obstacles and what each person may be bringing to the conversation.
Then we put the situation to the test.
Through carefully prepared role-plays and simulations based on their own situations, participants practice the conversation, receive feedback, examine what worked and what didn't, and try again. Sometimes several times.
More often than not, the smallest changes in approach reveal entirely different outcomes.
This is not a workshop about being accommodating, agreeing with everybody or memorising polite phrases.
It’s about remaining effective when a relationship is under strain, interests conflict and the consequences of getting it wrong are significant. It also takes into account the realities of office politics.
The foundations of this work go back to a programme I developed in 2024 for underwriting teams at the World Bank Group’s MIGA. I’ve since developed the approach further for leaders operating across different organisational and cultural contexts.
Conversations Under Pressure is designed for leadership teams and senior professionals dealing with difficult working relationships, sensitive decisions, negotiations and situations where authority alone isn’t enough.
And yes, you will have to practice. Quite a lot, actually, because the first time you attempt a difficult conversation shouldn’t necessarily be when everything is on the line. The workshops can be adapted to leadership teams, international groups and the specific situations they're dealing with.
If you or your team have a challenging conversation ahead, I’d be happy to discuss how we might prepare for it.
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