Staying In It

“Staying In It helps us see old problems in new ways, opening up unforeseen and creative avenues for problem solving. A very helpful read!”

- Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, coauthors of the bestselling Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most

Editor’s Pick - BookLife Reviews

“The wealth of actionable advice, paired with Acker’s empathetic yet straightforward tone and practical exercises, makes this a valuable addition to any leader’s bookshelf.”

- BookLife Reviews

“Marsha Acker gives leaders a concrete way to work with tension instead of going around it. Staying In It shows exactly how the conversations we avoid are the ones that determine whether teams move fast or stay stuck. The four-stage model gives you a practice you can actually use mid-conversation. I’ll be recommending this to every executive client who tells me their real problem is communication.”

-Deborah Grayson Riegel, Author, Aim High and Bounce Back: A Successful Woman’s Guide to Rethinking and Rising Up from Failure

“In her latest book, ‘Staying in it’, Marsha takes the reader on an in-depth exploration of why opposition is so very important in our interactions with one another. She challenges us to navigate tension more effectively by ‘simply’ staying in it. I love that proposition and agree with her wholeheartedly.”

- Dr Sarah Hill, Executive Coach, Author: Where did you learn to behave like that?

“Like many leaders I know, I have used the phrase ‘Let’s take it offline’ when the conversation in the room became uncomfortable. Marsha Acker has personally coached me to recognize those moments not as a reason to escape the tension, but as an invitation to stay with it long enough to discover what it is trying to reveal. In Staying In It, she brings that same wisdom to every leader and leadership team. The book is honest about how difficult these moments can be, practical about what to do when they arise, and deeply hopeful about what becomes possible when we learn to work through tension together. This is not just a book about better conversations. It is a book about better leadership”

• Ahmed Sidky, Ph.D., CEO, X2A

“The word ‘dialogue’ sometimes feels like a secret code. Marsha Acker takes us straight to the crux of the challenge - recognizing the importance of being in dialogue while tension swirls about us in some magnificent tsunami. The capacity of the great leader, through this lens, is the capacity to ‘Stay In It.’ Acker not only directs us toward noticing the tension and recognizing the importance of ‘staying in it’ together, she gives us some very clear practical guidance as to what we might specifically do. I recommend this book to all and any leaders working in today’s world of tension and stress, and to all those whose role it is to assist those leaders.”

- Paul Lawrence, Director, Leading Systemically & Honorary Researcher, Oxford Brookes University

Marsha Acker is an executive coach and facilitator who has spent more than two decades helping senior leaders at high-growth organizations work through the conversations they’ve been working around. Her Harvard Business Review article, “How to Avoid Common Miscommunications at Work,” lays out the very approach at the heart of this book. She has also contributed to Curiosity in HBR’s Emotional Intelligence Series. Marsha is the author of The Art and Science of Facilitation and Build Your Model for Leading Change, co-founder and CEO of Elevate Dialogue, founder of TeamCatapult, and host of the Defining Moments of Leadership podcast.

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