VitalSmartsTM

VitalSmarts, L.C., a strategic partner of The Duncan Company, is a leading corporate consulting firm with clients from more than 300 of the Fortune 500. Since the late 1970s, the VitalSmarts principals have researched with more than 20,000 people in hundreds of organizations, focusing on specific critical behaviors and learnable skills that the most vital organizations and individuals use to achieve results.

Many of the tools taught can be found in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestselling books Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High (McGraw-Hill 2002) and Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior (McGraw-Hill 2004).

Every team and every organization has problems. The difference between the best and the merely good is not how many problems they have, but whether they candidly discuss and resolve them. The difference is in how they handle the Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations that are the key to resolving their problems. Just about every day, you have a high-leverage interaction with someone that will have a long-term impact on your success.

Whether you’re working through a tough issue with a client or having a sensitive interaction with a General Manager, if you don’t succeed in these Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations you won’t get the results you need to become the "best of the best."

Duncan Company associates Kerry Patterson, Al Switzler, Ron McMillan, and Joseph Grenny  (l to r) founded VitalSmarts in 1990 to provide training and consulting services to individuals, teams, and organizations. VitalSmarts now has  more than 300 clients from the Fortune 500.