The Difficult Conversation Initiation

Depth · what it can open●●●○3 — emotional

Holding · facilitation0 — self-guided

Trust · group readiness★any

Disclosure · what is sharednone

A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Courage (VCoL collection): Identify a conversation you have been avoiding. Ask: 'What is the cost of continuing to avoid this?' Set a time frame for initiating it. When you initiate, be direct but kind. Practised many times a day, with a brief evening reflection, until the move becomes automatic.

Hold with care

The culminating act is a real avoided conversation — self-titrated by design: you choose which conversation, when, and how far; start with the smallest one on the list
Not for conversations where safety is at stake; those need support, not a micro-practice

Practical

Time: 0-2 min
Group: 1–1 · individual
Settings: self-guided
Materials: None beyond ordinary meeting/work settings
Mechanisms: life-embedding, behavioral-rehearsal
Change scope: skill · recurring-practice (hold the practice for at least a week; conversations initiated as real occasions arise)

Origin & where it lives

Thomas Jordan & Claude [AI]; VCoL method by Theo Dawson (Lectica) — IDG practice (idg.thomasjordan.se)

Instructions: open online

In this directory via Thomas Jordan's IDG Resource Library

status: checked · added 2026-08-25