Mental Health & Resilience
Leadership Development
Physical Wellbeing
Workplace CultureDifficult conversations training for confident, caring managers
Workplace tension often goes unnoticed until it becomes your problem. It builds in avoided feedback, unaddressed behaviour, or conversations that no one wants to initiate. Equipping your people with the skills to act early preserves relationships, curbs escalation, and eases pressure on you and your leadership team.
Difficult conversations training is a structured workplace communication program that teaches employees and managers practical strategies for underperformance, conflict, inappropriate behaviour and emotionally sensitive situations.
HSG delivers interactive workshops and webinars using established approaches including conflict-resolution frameworks, Nonviolent Communication (NVC) principles and motivational interviewing techniques. Workshops are available onsite in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra, with virtual delivery across Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific.
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The Cost of Avoiding the Conversation
Unresolved interpersonal issues rarely stay quiet. They surface later as formal grievances, mental stress claims and resignations — and Australian data shows how expensive that path is.
- Bullying and harassment drive claims: harassment and workplace bullying account for 33.2% of work-related mental stress claims in Australia, according to Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics 2025.
- Mental health claims involve prolonged absence: the median time off work for a serious mental health claim is 35.7 weeks, nearly five times the 7.4-week median across all serious claims, according to Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics 2025.
- Training supports broader controls: under the model WHS laws, PCBUs must eliminate psychosocial risks, or minimise them so far as is reasonably practicable. Safe Work Australia’s 2022 Model Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work explains that information, training, instruction and supervision may be needed to implement controls effectively, but they should sit alongside measures addressing work design, systems of work and harmful workplace behaviours.
Difficult conversations training can strengthen the communication and supervisory practices within a broader psychosocial risk strategy. It does not replace organisational controls addressing work design, workload, reporting systems or harmful behaviour. Used alongside those controls, it equips managers and employees to address concerns earlier, more consistently and with greater confidence.
Who This Is For
Difficult conversations training is designed for whole teams and managers separately, with content that adapts to who is in the room. Typical cohorts include new and emerging managers, experienced people leaders, intact teams navigating change or conflict, and customer-facing or high-pressure teams where difficult interactions are part of the role. Dedicated sessions can also be developed for HR and People & Culture professionals who personally manage sensitive workplace matters.
A dedicated manager version covers the dynamics of leading these conversations from a position of authority; it pairs well with our leadership development programs.
What the Training Involves
HSG delivers difficult conversations training as 60–90 minute workshops or extended half-day formats, onsite or virtually. Sessions are interactive and scenario-based. Participants practise communication frameworks on situations they recognise from work, not abstract case studies. Content is tailored to your industry, team dynamics, and specific friction points before delivery.
Available modules include:
- Navigating Difficult Conversations: practical strategies for handling challenging situations confidently.
- Conflict Resolution: frameworks to resolve disagreement early.
- Non-Violent Communication (NVC): express needs and concerns without blame.
- Facilitating Open and Authentic Communication: create safe conditions for raising concerns.
Multiple modules can be combined into a structured program. Many HSG clients pair difficult conversations training with Leadership Development for consistent management standards. Some combine it with Psychological Safety for Leaders to establish cultural foundations that make difficult conversations safer. Others use Workplace Culture workshops to address structural drivers of friction.
Circle of Courage: our experiential team format
Some teams don’t need more theory about difficult conversations; they need a safe, structured space to actually have the difficult conversations they’ve been avoiding. Circle of Courage is HSG’s half or full-day, experiential version of difficult conversations training, delivered to an intact team rather than as a lecture.
Through guided reflection, paired listening exercises and facilitated group discussion, participants identify the real workplace conversations that require courage, examine the avoidance patterns and assumptions that get in the way, and practise honest, respectful conversations in a professionally held environment.
It is grounded in workplace relevance and designed to feel safe rather than exposing: it is not therapy, and it does not force vulnerability. By the end of the session, participants will be able to name the conversations they have been putting off, recognise what drives avoidance in their team, and commit to a clear, practical next step with built-in peer accountability.
Sessions are led by a specialist facilitator and suit whole teams and leadership groups, on-site or off-site. The same experience can be booked as a team-connection day through our Team Building & Culture Workshops, and it complements structured work on Psychological Safety for Leaders. An optional Enneagram-based reflection exercise is available for teams already familiar with that framework. It is used as a conversation prompt, not as a validated psychometric assessment. Also available as a one-hour introductory session.
Outcomes
Direct measurable outcomes HSG reports after delivery
- Attendance and participation rates
- Participant feedback and reported confidence
- Manager observations on subsequent communication behaviour
- Repeat bookings for follow-up modules
Business-aligned outcomes the training is designed to support
- Reduced escalation of interpersonal issues to HR or formal grievance
- Stronger manager confidence in performance and feedback conversations
- Improved team communication during change or pressure
- Stronger communication and supervisory practices within a broader psychosocial risk strategy
Why early intervention matters: Mental health conditions accounted for 12% of serious workers’ compensation claims in 2023–24, and the number of these claims rose by 161.1% over the decade to 2023–24, according to Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025. Difficult conversations training can support earlier, more consistent responses to interpersonal concerns; it does not replace controls addressing workload, work design, staffing or management systems.
What our clients say
We chose the ‘Communication — Better Together’ session, and all staff had great feedback. The presenter, Jill, was great — punctual and professional, but open and engaging, turning what can feel like a lecture into a learning discussion.
David Roberts
Lewers Research
The facilitators are engaging and, most importantly, experts in their topics. We can tailor the workshops and messaging to suit our business needs.
Stephanie Calvert
CGI
Specialist Facilitators. Evidence-Based Methods.
HSG’s communication facilitators hold professional qualifications in psychology, counselling, communication, and organisational behaviour. Every session is led by an expert in the topic being delivered.
Sessions draw on more than 20 years of workplace delivery across corporate, government, education, and healthcare. They rely on evidence-based frameworks, including motivational interviewing, non-violent communication, and conflict resolution. Holistic Services Group has delivered workplace wellbeing programs since 2003. Our clients include Microsoft, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, the Australian Federal Police, and more than 1,600 other organisations.
For organisations addressing conflict as part of their WHS obligations, this training also complements our psychosocial risk programs.
Frequently asked questions
HSG facilitators run interactive, skills-based sessions rather than passive lectures. Participants work through realistic workplace scenarios and practise communication techniques in a low-pressure environment. They leave with frameworks they can apply immediately.
Yes. Sessions are tailored to your organisation’s communication challenges, industry, leadership requirements, and current team dynamics. HSG works with you before delivery to understand your team’s specific friction points.
HSG reports on attendance, participant feedback, reported confidence, and repeat bookings. Our experience shows that the training supports reduced escalation to HR or formal grievances, stronger manager confidence in feedback, and proactive psychosocial risk management. Results are usually strongest when combined with broader leadership or culture work, and when repeated on a planned schedule.
An EAP provides valuable confidential support to individual employees, but it does not replace an organisation’s duty to eliminate or minimise work-related psychosocial risks. Difficult conversations training can strengthen communication and supervisory practices, but training alone is not a complete control. Safe Work Australia’s 2022 Model Code explains that training and supervision may be needed to implement controls effectively, alongside measures addressing work design, systems of work and workplace behaviours. Many HSG clients use both.
Difficult conversations training suits whole teams and managers, with content adapted to the audience. Most participants are new and emerging managers, experienced leaders, HR and People & Culture teams, and intact teams facing change, performance issues, or friction. A dedicated manager version covers the dynamics of leading from authority.
Trusted by 1,600+ organisations across Australia and Asia-Pacific
Supporting corporate, government, healthcare, education and not-for-profit sectors
HSG has supported more than 1,600 organisations across corporate, government, healthcare, education and not-for-profit sectors, including Microsoft, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, BHP, the Department of Defence, St Vincent’s, the University of Sydney, Deakin University, The Smith Family and headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation.
Equip your team to handle important conversations before they become lasting problems.
Speak to our team for a tailored quote or program design.
Call us: 1300 889 073
We respond to all enquiries within 12 hours.
