JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- About 30 members of the Regional Health Command-Pacific, or RHC-P, team from Hawaii and JBLM participated in a two-day training Nov. 28 and 29 at JBLM about having "Crucial Conversations."
Based on the New York Times bestseller "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High," team members learned to prepare for high-stakes situations, to create powerful dialogue, to create a safe environment for difficult conversations, and to be persuasive not abrasive.
"Crucial Conversations offers a different set of tools, a different approach then we ordinarily use to try and help us get to a better place," said Judith Honesty, contractor, VitalSmarts, who led the training event.
Brig. Gen. Bertram C. Providence selected the training after having experienced it during his time at Forces Command as the FORSCOM surgeon, said Col. Scott Avery, chief of staff, RHC-P, who was also among the attendees.
"People are the No. 1 resource that we have," Avery said. "The Army invests in people, and we do so by investing in continuing education, training and so forth. That investment is critical."
The organization has undergone significant change, especially in the past year, as the former Pacific Regional Medical Command and Western Regional Medical Command merged to form one team, RHC-P, in January 2016.
"We're one region," Avery said. "Sometimes we need to come together, take a time out, and grow."
Honesty, who has provided this training for audiences as wide ranging as small nonprofits to large multinational corporations, said it is applicable to everyone in everyday life.
"What you all experience over these couple of days will help you in this organization but it will also help you as you go back to your families and into your communities," Honesty said.
The Crucial Conversations training was just one event as part of the region's overall organizational training plan.
Team members also recently participated in a Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness session that brought leaders from Hawaii and JBLM together via video teleconference to focus on bettering the organization.
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