Difficulty with Crucial Conversations

"We either anticipate a crucial conversation or are in the middle of one and we're at our absolute worst -- we  yell; we withdraw; we say things we later regret... That's because emotions don't exactly prepare us to converse effectively. Countless generations of genetic shaping drive humans to handle crucial conversations with flying fists and fleet feet, not intelligent persuasion and gentle attentiveness... Tow tiny organs seated neatly atop your kidneys pump adrenaline into your bloodstream. You don't choose to do this. Your adrenal glands do it, and then you have to live with it... Your brain diverts blood... (and) the higher level reasoning sections of your brain get less (blood). As a result, you end up facing challenging conversations with the same equipment available to a rhesus monkey."

- "Crucial Conversations - Tools for talking when stakes are high"