"This course really helped with understanding my own management style and giving me the knowledge and skills to hold difficult conversations more effectively."
Read more case studies:
Culture Change,Leadership Development
Case Study: Building Leadership Excellence at Historic Royal Palaces
Leadership skills aren't innate—they must be cultivated with care and intention. For Historic Royal Palaces (HRP), custodians of some of Britain's most treasured historical sites, effective leadership makes the difference between merely maintaining these iconic locations and truly bringing history to life for generations to come.
Read More
Culture Change,Leadership Development,Mediation
Feminist Leadership in Action: The Womankind Worldwide Story
Womankind Worldwide partnered with TCM to develop a comprehensive leadership programme that would align their internal practices with their feminist values. The organisation recognised that their line managers needed more than just standard management training—they needed tools and approaches that would help them champion cultural transformation.
Read More
Coaching,Leadership Development
King’s School Canterbury: Elevating Leadership with Coaching Skills
The KSC team identified an opportunity to build their confidence in offering coaching to leaders, moving beyond providing answers and instead fostering a culture of self-reflection and ownership. 
Read More

Quality Conversations, Exceptional Care: Action for Children’s Journey with TCM

At Action for Children, one of the UK’s most respected children’s charities with a 150-year legacy of protecting vulnerable young people, difficult conversations are an unavoidable reality. For staff working on the frontlines of child protection and family support, the ability to navigate challenging conversations isn’t just a professional skill – it’s essential for their mission.

Recognising this need, Action for Children partnered with TCM’s Engage Leadership to implement their specialised Quality Conversations training programme, aiming to transform how staff approach challenging interactions.

A Dynamic Partnership

The partnership began with a clear purpose: equip Action for Children staff with practical communication skills that could turn potential conflicts into opportunities for positive change. Since 2023, TCM has delivered their Quality Conversations programme to eight cohorts of 12-16 participants each, working directly with the real challenges these professionals face daily.

Inside Quality Conversations

The Quality Conversations+ programme is a comprehensive one-day course designed to empower participants with essential strategies and self-awareness tools for effective dialogue. The curriculum focuses on several key areas:

  • Strategies and Self-Awareness: Participants develop effective dialogue strategies alongside crucial self-awareness tools, with particular emphasis on empathy, active listening, and curiosity – foundational skills for any meaningful conversation.
  • Understanding Challenging Situations: A significant portion of the training helps participants recognise their own role in creating or contributing to challenging situations – an often overlooked aspect of communication difficulties. They gain practical skills for discerning and negotiating mutually beneficial resolutions.
  • Resolution Implementation: The programme goes beyond just having the initial difficult conversation, teaching participants how to establish follow-through plans and feedback mechanisms for long-term success, ensuring agreed-upon resolutions are properly implemented.
  • Emotional Intelligence: Perhaps most critically, Quality Conversations develops enhanced skills to manage strong emotions, negative attitudes, and difficult behaviour – essential capabilities when tensions run high.

The programme explores real-life scenarios, adapts leadership frameworks to participants’ organisational needs, delves into the psychology of workplace conflict, and reframes conflict as an opportunity for growth rather than just a challenge to overcome.

Real Impact, Real Voices

The feedback from Action for Children participants speaks volumes about the programme’s effectiveness:

Dawn Hughes shared: “I have taken on board how to deal with difficult conversations in a more positive manner, in a safe and secure environment with an outcome being an open and stronger team.”

For Abigail Doman, the training offered both insight and tools: “This course really helped with understanding my own management style and giving me the knowledge and skills to hold difficult conversations more effectively.”

Other participants highlighted the practical benefits:

“It was really helpful and detailed and gave me good insight to how I can handle conflict in the future” and “I have learnt new skills that can benefit me going forward with difficult conflicts, also understanding different approaches.”

The programme’s effectiveness extends far beyond the training room. With TCM’s 12-month support system, participants continue developing their skills long after the initial session. Teams have reported improved meeting dynamics, more constructive addressing of issues, and—most importantly—more energy focused on their core mission of supporting vulnerable children and families.

This shift hasn’t just improved workplace dynamics; it has enhanced the quality of services provided to the children and families who depend on Action for Children. When staff are better at having honest, respectful conversations internally, they’re better equipped to have them with the families they support as well.

Transform Your Organisation’s Conversations

Could your team benefit from the same transformative training that has empowered Action for Children’s staff? Quality Conversations is ideal for aspiring leaders, mid-level managers, senior executives, team leads, and entrepreneurs who want to develop crucial communication skills.

The programme can be delivered online or in-house and tailored to your organisation’s unique culture and challenges. It can even be incorporated into a wider modular development programme alongside TCM’s leadership, communication, and mediation courses.