Page 16 - Crucial Conversations

XIV FOREWORD

other priorities, and the class is just not that important to me at
this time. I hope you can understand." The teacher was taken
aback, but then started to listen. A dialogue took place, new
understanding was achieved, and the bonding was deepened.

I know these authors to be outstanding individuals and
remarkable teachers and consultants, and have even seen them
work their magic in training seminars-but I didn't know if they
could take this complex topic and fit it into a book. They did. I
encourage you to really dig into this material, to pause and think
deeply about each part and how the parts are sequenced. Then
apply what you've learned, go back to the book again, learn
some more, and apply your new learnings. Remember, to know
and not to do is really not to know.
I think you'll discover, as have I, that crucial conversations, as
powerfully described in this book, reflect the insight of this
excerpt of Robert Frost's beautiful and memorable poem, "The
Road Not Taken":

T w o roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as f a r as I could
T o where it bent in the undergrowth; . .
.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
T w o roads diverged in a wood, and I­
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Stephen R. Covey