Transitions and Difficult Conversations

While facilitating, you are likely to encounter challenging moments when you might not be sure how to respond, when you strongly disagree with the perspective of the learner, or when the conversation has shifted in a direction that makes you concerned for the comfort and safety of other learners.

Below are some potential responses for handling difficult moments:

• “Interesting. I’m not sure how to respond to that. Let me think on that for a minute and I’ll bring us back to that”
• “I’m not comfortable with where this conversation is going. I’d like to bring us back to some of the activities/questions we had planned.”
• “I’m just getting conscious of time here. Let’s move on for now.”
• “How do you think that comment might land for a new Canadian? I’m reminded of the commitments we all made when we came to the workshop…”
• “Tell me more about that.”
• “It’s okay for us to agree to disagree. Let’s move on for now.”