Frequently Asked Questions
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Triad Consulting Group is a specialized consulting firm and pioneer in difficult communications, with more than 25 years of experience developing frameworks and approaches that are recognized as the go-to, seminal source in the industry, and routinely referenced by other firms, academics, and practitioners.
Founded by Sheila Heen and Doug Stone, members of the Harvard Negotiation Project and New York Times bestselling authors of Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback, Triad provides advisory services, executive solutions, and capacity-building programs to help organizations with human-centered communication challenges that shape business performance. Our areas of expertise include: Difficult Conversations®, Giving & Receiving Feedback, Speaking up, Negotiation, and Influence & Persuasion.
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Triad Consulting Group brings unmatched research credibility in conversation and negotiation skills, expertise honed over 25 years in the most demanding and complex environments, and a rigorous and analytical approach that goes far beyond what is often reduced to “soft skills” training.
What that looks like in practice:
We are the source. Triad’s founders are the authors of the foundational frameworks used by leaders and organizations worldwide, and Triad’s team continues to teach in the world’s most prestigious academic institutions, including Harvard.
Principles, not scripts. Leaders learn to understand the dynamics beneath an interaction and adapt their approach in real time.
Built for what works. Research and academic rigor are combined with decades of practical application in the world’s most visible, demanding, and influential organizations.
Walking the talk. Triad practices the same principles it teaches, with a low-ego, high-accountability approach to working with clients and one another.
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Triad Consulting Group is the only firm authorized to offer services based on the books Difficult Conversations and Thanks for the Feedback. We help organizations apply these frameworks to real business challenges, building the practical capability leaders and teams need to work through conflict, manage stakeholders, and give and receive feedback effectively.
Explore how we’ve helped clients with the people side of business performance. →
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Return-on-Interaction is Triad Consulting Group's framework for the business value created (or lost) through high-stakes human interactions. Drawing on decades of practical experience and academic rigor, beginning at the Harvard Negotiation Project and through 30 years of partnering with organizations globally, Triad uses this framework to identify the specific levers that transform working relationships into real business value.
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Organizations partner with Triad Consulting Group for two reasons: to address a specific challenge when human dynamics have become a roadblock to business performance, or proactively, when strengthening human interaction & relationships is a strategic opportunity.
To address an acute challenge: Leadership conflict. Feedback challenges. Organizational change. Stalled decision making. Clients want to address what isn’t working, even if the root cause isn’t clear (yet).
To build organizational capability: Stronger cross-functional collaboration. Faster execution. Stronger decision making. Innovation and change. Clients want to invest in strengthening the leadership and communication capabilities that enable business performance.
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Triad Consulting Group helps organizations address business challenges where human dynamics are getting in the way of progress. Common examples include high-stakes change, strategic disagreements and deadlock, performance and feedback challenges, leadership transitions, skill development, and building leadership capabilities at scale.
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Triad’s five core areas of expertise are Difficult Conversations®, Giving & Receiving Feedback, Speaking Up, Negotiation, and Influence & Persuasion. Complex challenges rarely fit neatly into one category, and the role of trust and power cuts across all areas. Triad starts with understanding our client's specific challenges and unique context before combining these areas of expertise according to what the situation requires rather than treating them as separate, off-the-shelf offerings.
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Triad Consulting Group helps organizations get more value from the talent they already have by developing bespoke approaches that embed lasting behavior change, and integrating new practices and tools into existing ways of working. We strengthen the human capabilities that shape how people collaborate, make decisions, address friction, and execute.
Triad’s Return-on-Interaction approach helps identify where the quality of critical interactions is limiting business performance and where stronger capability can unlock more value from individual talent and leadership investment.
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We hear a lot about AI right now; you probably do, too. AI can help leaders prepare for conversations, generate options, explore different perspectives, and practice in a low-risk setting. And yes, it can script you. But it cannot script the unpredictability of real people, in real moments, and it cannot replicate the deeply human need for authenticity, trust, and genuine connection. This means that AI cannot replace the human judgment required to respond to a real interaction as it unfolds.
Durable leadership capability and real learning develops through a combination of research, practice, feedback, and experience with real people and real stakes. It demands eustress—healthy stress and a tolerance for discomfort—that requires human-to-human interaction and coaching. Triad understands AI is a useful complement to that development, not a replacement for it.
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Triad Consulting Group offers advisory services, executive solutions, facilitated forums, and capability-building programs designed to help leaders and organizations navigate high-stakes human interactions that shape business performance.
Diagnostic Insights: Organizational diagnostics and implementing a Return-on-Interaction architecture.
Executive Advisory: Targeted interventions for board alignment, high-stakes leadership transitions, and organizational change.
Facilitated Forums: High-stakes senior team sessions to address the complexities of working relationships and drive strategic consensus.
Capacity Building: Custom workshops and enterprise programs to equip teams at scale with our proprietary frameworks and tools.
Learn more about our expertise.
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We tailor the format to the challenge, the leaders involved, and the organization’s needs. Engagements may range from intensive executive offsites and facilitated forums to keynotes to ongoing advisory and enterprise-wide capability building, delivered in person, virtually, or through a hybrid approach. For global organizations, we design experiences that work across geographies and leadership levels.
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We partner with Fortune 500 companies, privately-held firms, public sector organizations, and non-profits across industries and geographies. We are often brought into high-stakes situations or matrixed organizations, with deep experience partnering with top-tier private equity firms and family offices; global law firms and professional services firms; financial services, healthcare, pharmaceutical, and biotech organizations; and rapidly scaling technology companies.
Explore how we help organizations address their complex challenges. →