Midwest Principals’ Center and IL ASCD invites you to attend

“Having Hard Conversations”

with Jennifer Abrams 

This is an *online BOOK STUDY, led by Jennifer Abrams, consisting of three sessions of 90 minutes each day from 7:45am t0 9:15am on Dec. 8, 2022; Jan. 12, 2023; and Feb. 2, 2023.  It is also available ON DEMAND during the entire month of each presentation (by request). A FREE book will be sent to all participants prior to Dec. 8, 2022.

*Zoom Meeting ( A Zoom Invite will be sent to all participants prior to each session), By request, a Zoom Recording Link will be sent to all ON DEMAND participants.

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Jennifer Abrams

*Formerly a high school English teacher and a new teacher coach in Palo Alto Unified School District (Palo Alto, CA, USA), Jennifer Abrams is currently a communications consultant and author who works with educators and others at all levels on leadership development, effective collaboration skills, having hard conversations, and creating identity safe workplaces.

Jennifer’s publications include Having Hard Conversations; The Multigenerational Workplace: Communicate, Collaborate & Create Community; Hard Conversations Unpacked: the Whos, Whens, and What Ifs; Swimming in the Deep Ed: Four Foundational Skills for Leading Successful School Initiatives, and her newest book, Stretching Your Learning Edges: Growing (Up) at Work.

Dr. Abrams shares her work in other mediums as a featured columnist on growth and change for Learning Forward’s The Learning Professional Journal and as well as contributing to The International Educator (TIE), focusing her writing on adult development and collaboration skills.

Jennifer has been invited to keynote, facilitate and coach at schools and conferences worldwide and is honored to have been named one of the “18 Women All K-12 Educators Should Know,” by Education Week’s ‘Finding Common Ground’ blog. 

More about Jennifer’s work can be found at her website: www.jenniferabrams.com and on Twitter @jenniferabrams.

HAVING HARD CONVERSATIONS

Following up on her recent workshop, “Stretching Your Learning Edges” (November 7^th), Jennifer returns to help us take a deeper dive into taking responsibility for our communications, with a focus on challenging conversations. As administrators, coaches, and colleagues, we often come up against situations where difficult topics must be addressed. 

• What do we know about the best strategies for those moments?
• What questions should we be asking ourselves before we speak?
• What environments are best for when we do speak?

Based on Jennifer’s book, Having Hard Conversations and her work with conflict and interpersonal communication, this workshop will provide participants with action plans and scripting tools for having those necessary, hard conversations.

Participants will learn how to:

• Identify why they hesitate having hard conversations
• Choose questions to ask themselves before they choose to speak up
• Articulate in professional language the challenges they are facing
• Determine the goals of the conversation and write an action plan of support
• Script the conversation avoiding trigger words that put others on the defensive
• Choose the best ‘wheres’ and ‘whens’ for a productive discussion

A copy of Jennifer’s book, Having Hard Conversations, is included in the price of registration and will be mailed to each participant prior to the first session.