‘Equip your people to handle ‘difficult conversations’ with confidence’
Brave Conversations...
How does this course help your business?
This engaging and interactive course, delivered face-to-face, virtually or digitally, supports employees of all levels to have brave conversations about a variety of topics, rather than a ‘difficult’ conversation.
By developing self-awareness, understanding the impact of emotions on both themselves and others, learning how to listen and communicate effectively, they can step forward bravely, confidently navigating through the awkwardness and having a successful conversation, not a difficult one.
Using drama-based simulations, which can be uniquely tailored to your business, our Brave Conversations course equips your people with the self-awareness and skills to have more effective interactions with customers, peers, team members or managers, resulting in improved working relationships, team dynamics and productivity.
Watch our Brave Conversations Video
Why this course?
‘Difficult’ conversations can take a variety of forms, but they’ve all got one thing in common: often, we allow our emotions to hijack and control our behaviour, and this means the interaction doesn’t go as planned, sometimes even escalating into conflict.
In this course, learners will explore different communication skills and techniques, raising their self-awareness and helping them recognise how to handle challenging interactions with a calm, confident approach that results in a more successful outcome.
Our Brave Conversations course is highly practical and interactive. Using experiential drama-based scenarios, learners put their skills into practice, discussing and sharing best practice, taking away key tools that they can apply immediately in their day-to-day roles.
What does it cover?
Brave Conversations: Equipping Employees with the Skills to Communicate with Confidence
Our Brave Conversations course supports learners to develop their self-awareness, understanding what happens in conversations when their emotions take control, and why this is.
We explore some key communication models which can be used to provide structure and reduce escalation, so that learners can manage emotional responses (both their own and others’), and build better habits around listening, giving feedback, and staying present in high-stakes moments. These skills are central to creating a culture of psychological safety, strong working relationships and meaningful interaction.
How do we do it?
In our Brave Conversations course, we use drama-based learning to simulate real-world scenarios where conversations can become challenging. Our professional actors bring these moments to life, allowing participants to explore different emotional responses and behaviours in a safe, supportive environment.
Forum theatre gives learners the opportunity to direct and shape the conversation, experimenting with language, tone, and approach to see what really works.
We also offer an extended version of this session where learners work directly with our actors for 1-2-1 real-play, practicing real conversations in a safe environment and receiving individual feedback to help them improve even further.
Learning Outcomes.
Our Brave Conversations course supports learners to recognise the negative behaviours and language which can result in difficult interactions. Through our unique drama simulations, which can be tailored to your business and context, they’ll develop the skills and emotional intelligence to have more positive brave conversations.
By the end of the Brave Conversations session, learners will be able to …
• Use a variety of approaches to help them deliver difficult messages to people with a focus on a win-win outcome.
• Recognise how to prevent difficult conversations from escalating.
• Explain the skills and behaviours required to manage emotional conversations.
• Demonstrate increased self-awareness and use this knowledge to build positive working relationships.
Why is this course important?
When your people have difficult conversations, rather than brave ones, relationships, culture and even sales can be negatively impacted. Whether the conversation escalates into conflict, or the issue at hand is avoided thanks to lots of waffle, the important message gets lost, and people don’t know where they stand, what’s expected of them, or how their actions & behaviours have impacted others.
By training your people how to have Brave Conversations, you’re equipping them with valuable communication skills they can use in a variety of professional settings – be it communicating with customers and clients, collaborating with peers, supporting & developing their team member and even managing upwards.
Really engaging, actors were brilliant and trainer very knowledgeable with interesting content.
HOW DO WE DELIVER IT?
FACE TO FACE
IN THE TRAINING ROOM
LIVE ONLINE
VIA OUR VIRTUAL
CLASSROOM
SELF-DIRECTED
VIA E-LEARNING
COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ABOUT Brave Conversations
What is Brave Conversations Training?
Brave Conversations Training is designed to help individuals confidently navigate difficult conversations in the workplace and beyond. The course focuses on developing self-awareness, understanding emotional responses, and using effective communication techniques to turn challenging discussions into productive, solution-focused conversations.
What makes this Brave Conversations course different from other communication training?
Brave Conversations uses interactive drama-based learning to bring real-life scenarios to life. Professional actors simulate difficult conversations, allowing participants to observe, engage, and practice techniques in a safe, supportive environment. This hands-on approach makes the learning experience more engaging and impactful compared to traditional communication workshops.
What do you mean by ‘real play’ in the Brave Conversations course?
Real-play’ is an interactive drama-based learning technique that we use in the extended, full-day version of this course. Learners are not acting – they’re being themselves, working with one of our professional actors to practice a real conversation they want to have with an individual at work – our actors, following a brief from the learner, will demonstrate the character traits of the individual, so that they can practice the conversation in a safe way, and then receive feedback & reflect on how it went.
Is the Brave Conversations course for all employees or just managers?
The Brave Conversations course is designed for all employees, regardless of role or seniority. Whether you’re a team member, manager, or senior leader, learning how to approach challenging conversations with confidence, empathy, and clarity is a valuable skill that benefits the entire organisation.
Brave Conversations aren’t just for managers giving feedback—they’re for anyone who needs to address misunderstandings, resolve conflict, or communicate difficult messages constructively. This course helps build a shared language and approach to communication, creating a more open, respectful, and psychologically safe workplace.
That said, if you’re looking to focus specifically on managers or leadership teams, we can tailor the course content to reflect the unique challenges of managing teams, performance conversations, and cross-functional communication. Whether delivered company-wide or to a targeted group, Brave Conversations provides the tools needed to strengthen dialogue and collaboration across your organisation.
Can the Brave Conversations drama sessions reflect challenges in our business?
Yes, the Brave Conversations course is designed to be fully tailored to reflect the real challenges your employees face. During our initial DNA conversation, we’ll work closely with you to understand your organisation’s culture, communication pain points, and common scenarios where conversations often become difficult.
Using these insights, we create bespoke scripts that mirror your workplace context—whether that’s performance feedback, team tension, customer complaints, or cross-departmental miscommunication. These tailored drama scenes are brought to life by our professional actors and used during the course to spark meaningful reflection and hands-on practice.
By making the content highly relevant and grounded in your business reality, participants are more likely to engage, relate, and apply what they’ve learned—making Brave Conversations both impactful and practical from day one.
What do you mean by ‘forum theatre’?
This is when our actors play out a scene, with the learners ‘directing’ how the manager / conversation lead conducts the interaction. Learners can pause, stop the action and rewind, giving them the opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t, enabling interactive skills practice in a safe environment
How good are we?
THE ted Learning Guarantee!
We have been delivering highly impactful drama-based learning for over 13 years.
If for any reason you are not completely satisfied with the learning we provide and the learner feedback reflects this, we will put it right at no additional cost or give you your money back.
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