Crucial Conversations
Sentence Starters
Establishing Mutual Trust and Respect
Thank you so much for coming, I really appreciate your time.
Thank you for coming to talk with me about such an important issue.
Is now a good time to talk?
Last we talked, you shared concerns regarding______. I’d like to follow up on those concerns and discuss your child’s progress.
I called today to share a success/celebration_______.
Compliment sandwich
Lead with a positive, get to the “meat” of the issue and close with a positive.
Establishing a Shared Focus or Purpose
Our/My goal is to provide ______________ with the support he/she needs to be academically successful.
I know that you want was it best for your child, please know that my goal is also to provide him/her with the support he/she needs to be successful her at school.
I can see that this issue really bothers you and that ___________ ‘s success is really important to you, and overall we have the same goal because ____________’s success is really important to me as well. Let’s talk about how we can work together to achieve our goal.
Together we can figure out the best way to support him/her here at school.
Making the Conversation Safe
You know your child better than anyone else and I would love to get some additional information/specifics on what motivates him/her. Would you share that with me please?
I appreciate you coming in today to discuss concerns about _______. Why don’t we start with you. Can you share your concerns with us? We want to work with ______ to help them feel more successful here at school.
I understand that you are very upset/frustrated about ________________. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me about it today.
Please go on. Help me understand what happened.
How can I help?
- I’m sorry that this happened ________. Let’s work on a solution so that doesn’t happen again.
Closing the Conversation
Thank you for coming in today…
I see that I need to gather some more information to address your concerns. Let’s find a date/time that we can reconvene to discuss this further.
Do you have any questions or concerns we haven’t addressed?
Is there anything else you think I should know?
Please know that I will follow up with you as soon as I have more information.
Give time/date
Take the time to gather facts
- Follow through