Author
Al Switzler
The consultant and university lecturer who co-wrote Crucial Conversations and taught its method for thirty years.
1 book on BookYol
The story and the impact
Al Switzler taught at the University of Michigan's executive development programme and consulted with organisations on communication and performance before co-founding the training company behind Crucial Conversations with Patterson, Grenny and McMillan.
With Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny and Ron McMillan he wrote Crucial Conversations (2002), drawn from the founders' studies of people their colleagues named as unusually good at high-stakes conversations. He has taught its method to managers ever since, through the book's revisions in 2011 and 2021 and the company's change of name from VitalSmarts to Crucial Learning.
The signature
The method Switzler teaches starts with the self before the conversation, in what the book calls starting with heart: know what you really want, and refuse the false choice between honesty and kindness.