The truth matters! New York Times bestselling author Mark Murphy returns, with the latest science and techniques for delivering tough messages without causing anger or defensiveness. The greatest workplaces have one thing in common; they speak the truth! And they do it without causing anger, resentment, or defensiveness. Unfortunately, a whopping 80 to 90 percent of employees and managers are reluctant, or struggle, to speak the truth. New York Times bestselling author Mark Murphy provides the science and tools for calmly and rationally leading people to question their preconceptions, accept new information, and eventually change their beliefs. Truth at Work shows that by moving from confrontations to conversations, from feelings to facts, and from diatribe to dialogue, you can get everyone to hear and accept hard truths. You’ll learn: • How psychological phenomena like cognitive dissonance, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and selective perception cause people to deny, resist or attack the truth • How to delayer your conversations into 4 parts (Facts, Interpretations, Reactions, Ends) and which pieces you should and shouldn’t share • How the 5-part I.D.E.A.S. Script can make someone a willing participant in a truthful dialogue • How to assess if your current approach is too tough or too soft • A checklist for diagnosing whether you need a one-time talk or multi-conversation process • How Structured Listening helps you calmly and logically control volatile conversations • The 7 phrases that make people defensive (and what you should say instead) • And much more! Whether you’re trying to gain acceptance for a brilliant discovery, convince an employee to get to work on time, stop your coworker from being a jerk or urge your boss to tell you the truth about why they’re mad, Truth At Work makes even the toughest messages easy to hear.

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together