escalation

Not only is this consulting free, it is meaningful.

Here are four tips to get you started on building your containment muscle. For a discussion of why containment matters, refer to Keep Conversations from Escalating.

The communication skill to learn before any other is containment.

Containment is the ability to prevent issues, problems, and challenges from escalating unnecessarily. And escalation is a grave relational threat that lurks just around the corner in almost every interaction.