Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most

I started reading this book to figure out how to deal with a problematic colleague. That situation has since resolved itself, so I'm unable to speak directly to the effectiveness of the advice. I like a lot of the ideas; some of them might be hard to get others to buy into.

One thing that did bother me a bit: they used example situations to demonstrate that their techniques work, but... those situations and conversations are made up wholesale. Sometimes they were persuasive, and you can see how a conversation might go that way, but other times, those conversations can seem unrealistic and overly pat.