Help managers have the conversations they’ve been avoiding.
Handling Difficult Conversations is a complete 2-day workshop: separating facts from stories, opening in 60 seconds, listening under pressure, handling anger and tears, agreeing specific actions and repairing relationships — ending with a rehearsal of a real conversation. Built on the CLEAR Model.
- 2 days · 14 contact hours
- Practice-heavy: openings, emotion, agreement role plays
- Participants rehearse the real conversation they’ve been avoiding
- Includes when and how to involve HR
Handling Difficult Conversations: Clear, Kind and Courageous Trainer Toolkit by Bodhih Training — built on programmes delivered to 2,000+ companies since 2008.
The workshop is on the calendar. The material isn’t.
Hints instead of feedback
Vague messages let problems grow.
Fear of emotion
Managers avoid anger, tears and defensiveness.
No follow-through
Conversations end without clear agreements.
Picture the evening before your programme.
Picture day one. Each manager privately writes down the conversation they’ve been avoiding. By afternoon they have separated facts from the stories in their heads and written a 60-second opening.
On Day 2 they practise staying steady through anger, silence and tears, agree specific actions, and rehearse the real conversation with peer coaching — then commit to a date.
What you will deliver
A complete design, sequenced and timed — so every session has a purpose and every activity lands.
- Framework
- The CLEAR Model — Clarify · Listen · Express · Agree · Review
- Length
- 2 days
- Group size
- Optimal 10–16
- Ends with
- Real conversation rehearsal
Why We Avoid Difficult Conversations
The cost of avoidance, threat responses, the stories we tell ourselves.
Prepare: Purpose, Facts and Stories
Clarifying purpose, separating facts from interpretations, anticipating reactions.
Listen First: Curiosity Under Pressure
Open questions, reflecting, acknowledging emotion, staying curious.
Express the Issue Clearly and Kindly
SBI, impact statements, the first 60 seconds, avoiding blame and vagueness.
When Emotions Run High
Anger, tears, silence, defensiveness, de-escalation, pausing well.
Agree a Way Forward
Problem-solving together, options, commitments, handling no agreement.
Review, Follow Up and Repair
Follow-up, documentation, repairing relationships, when to escalate.
Capstone: The Conversation You’ve Been Avoiding
Plan and rehearse a real conversation with peer coaching.
Everything for the room. Nothing left to build.
Unlocks the moment you pay. Until then, here is exactly what you will be downloading.
To deliver
- Facilitator Guide with scripts and role-play structures
- Main Slide Deck plus Simple Backup Deck
- Virtual Delivery Guide
For participants
- Participant Workbook with all 8 artefacts
- Pre-Work
- Role-Play Scenario Pack — 6 scenarios + 10 phrase cards
- Case Studies — 6 cases with model answers
- Quick Reference Cards
To measure
- Assessment Instruments
- Participant Feedback Form
- Certificate Template
To design & sell
- Training Design Document
- Marketing Toolkit
What your participants will be able to do
Designed for people managers; team and project leaders and HR business partners.
- Recognise and reduce avoidance
- Prepare with purpose and facts
- Open clearly within a minute
- Listen with curiosity
- Handle strong emotions
- Agree specific actions
- Follow up and repair
Walk in with data. Walk out with proof.
Trainers who measure before and after design sharper sessions — and get rebooked. AssessAll, our sister assessment platform, has assessments that sit naturally alongside this programme.
Walk in knowing where every participant starts.
Pair Handling Difficult Conversations: Clear, Kind and Courageous with an AssessAll assessment. Participants take it before the workshop, so you can tune the emphasis to the room; they retake it afterwards, so you can show the client what actually moved. Better-targeted sessions, and evidence that wins the next booking.
- Conflict Navigation & ResolutionView assessment ↗
- Performance Appraisal Conversation Assessment for Managers, with a Spoken RoundView assessment ↗
- Exit and Stay Conversation Assessment for Managers and HR TeamsView assessment ↗
Nothing quite fits? Create your own assessment on AssessAll, or ask the AssessAll team to build one around this programme’s objectives for you.
That is the design work already done for you — research, session plans, slides, activities and assessments. Spend it facilitating, selling your next programme, or simply switching off.
The honest comparison
| Building it yourself | This toolkit | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to deliver | 80+ hours | Ready today |
| Practice | Limited | Multiple role-play rounds |
| Real transfer | Hope | Rehearsed real conversation with a date |
Made for people who stand at the front of the room
Manager development
A core skill for every people manager.
Performance culture
Earlier, clearer conversations reduce formal cases.
HR partnering
Equip managers to handle informal issues well.
18 years in real training rooms, packaged for yours.
Bodhih Training has designed and delivered corporate programmes since 2008 — for first-time managers, sales teams, leadership cohorts and whole organisations. These toolkits are that reach, distilled: the structures, activities and materials that hold up in front of real participants, written so another trainer can pick them up and deliver with confidence.
Three steps from here to the room
- STEP 1
Buy in two minutes
Name, email, pay with UPI, card or netbanking. No account to create.
- STEP 2
Download instantly
Your download page opens at once, and a permanent link lands in your inbox.
- STEP 3
Brand it and deliver
Every file is editable Word or PowerPoint. Add your logo, your examples, and run it.
Clear is kind.
Download the complete programme and help managers have the conversations that matter.
Licensed to the buyer to deliver this programme to their own participants and clients, in person or online, and to adapt and brand the material. Reselling or redistributing the files is not permitted.
The rest of the Bodhih family, when you need it
Make the workshop last beyond the room
A workshop is two days; the behaviour change takes months. Jobulary turns assessment evidence into a focused individual development plan (IDP) — a few quarterly objectives built on real work, re-measured honestly. Give every Handling Difficult Conversations: Clear, Kind and Courageous participant a plan to carry forward.
IDPs are launching soon — the working demo is free to explore now, no sign-up.
Rather have us deliver it?
If you want Handling Difficult Conversations: Clear, Kind and Courageous run for your organisation by Bodhih Training’s own facilitators — in person, live virtual or blended, customised to your context — we deliver it end to end.
solutions@bodhih.com · +91 99000 11601. Building your own facilitation skills? See Bodhih’s Train the Trainer certification.
What buyers say
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Handling Difficult Conversations: Clear, Kind and Courageous toolkit — FAQs
Already bought? Resend my linkWhat does difficult conversations training cover?
Avoidance, preparation, facts vs stories, openings, listening, handling emotion, agreeing actions, follow-up and repair.
Do participants have to share real situations?
No — stock scenarios are always available, and confidentiality is agreed.
Is it the same as disciplinary training?
No. It focuses on informal conversations; formal processes are covered in MUDG001.
Can it be delivered online?
Yes, with breakout trios.
What exactly do I get in the Handling Difficult Conversations: Clear, Kind and Courageous trainer toolkit?
14 editable files: Training Design Document, Facilitator Guide, Slide Deck — Simple Backup, Slide Deck — Main, Virtual Delivery Guide, Participant Workbook, Pre-Work Material, Case Studies, Role-Play Scenario Pack, Quick Reference Cards, Assessment Instruments, Participant Feedback Form, Certificate Template, Marketing Toolkit. Word and PowerPoint formats, so you can add your own branding and examples — and a single ZIP to download everything at once.
How much does the Handling Difficult Conversations: Clear, Kind and Courageous toolkit cost?
₹2,999 including 18% GST for buyers in India, or $29 for buyers outside India. One-time payment, no subscription, with an automatic invoice.
How and when do I receive the files?
Immediately. Your download page opens the moment payment succeeds, and a permanent download link is emailed to you. The link works from any device without a password.
Can I deliver this programme to my clients and put my own logo on it?
Licensed to the buyer to deliver this programme to their own participants and clients, in person or online, and to adapt and brand the material. Reselling or redistributing the files is not permitted.
How can I measure what participants learn in Handling Difficult Conversations: Clear, Kind and Courageous?
The toolkit includes its own assessment instruments and feedback form. For a scored pre- and post-workshop measure, pair it with an assessment from AssessAll, Bodhih's sister assessment platform — for example Conflict Navigation & Resolution or Performance Appraisal Conversation Assessment for Managers, with a Spoken Round. If nothing fits, you can build your own assessment on AssessAll or ask the AssessAll team to create one for you.
Can Bodhih Training deliver the Handling Difficult Conversations: Clear, Kind and Courageous programme for my organisation?
Yes. Bodhih Training (bodhih.com) can facilitate the programme in person, live virtual or blended, customised to your context. Contact solutions@bodhih.com or +91 99000 11601.
How long is the programme?
2 days · 14 contact hours · in-person, virtual or 4 half-days. The facilitator guide shows how to run it as designed, and the virtual delivery guide adapts it for online sessions.