Crucial Conversations is a cheesy book written by 4 authors. The book claims you can "Learn how to keep your cool and get the results you want when emotions flare." Amazon 
Chapter 1, "What is a Crucial Conversation"
A crucial conversation is any conversation where (1) the stakes are high, (2) there are opposing opinions, and (3) there are strong emotions at play.
Any conversation can suddenly change into a crucial one without notice.
If you don't address crucial conversations head on, you will end up being unhappy about the outcomes. Those outcomes will worsen the longer you take to resolve the issues.
Avoidance or handling a Crucial Conversation poorly can affect your relationships and professionalism.
Chapter 2, "Mastering Crucial Conversations"
This chapter introduces the perspective of people who haven't contributed to the conversation because they've held back.
The authors talk about the knowledge of a group as being like a pool of knowledge. Everyone's perspective needs to be expressed to take advantage of this, and that requires safety.
This chapter characterises "The Fool's Choice", which is someone who only see's a conversation as having these two options: * Speak up and turn the most powerful person in the company into their sworn enemy. * Or suffer in silence and make a bad decision that might ruin the company People who master crucial conversations know how to escape this trap.
I believe the tools to avoid the fools choice are actually chapter headings that follow from here: Start with the heart, learn to look, make it safe, master my stories, state my path, explore others' paths, move to action, and 'yeah but'.
Chapter 3: "Start with the Heart"
These are techniques for recognising your own emotions and how they might be playing out in a situation.
When in a conversation that's becoming heated, reflect based on these 3 questions * What do I really want for myself? * What do I really want for others? * What do I really want for the relationship?
This should help in building perspective and stop you from feeling the need to "win".
Chapter 4: "Learn to Look"
Chapter 5, "Make it safe"
Chapter 6: "Master my stories"
Chapter 7: "State my path"
Chapter 8: "Explore others' paths"
Chapter 9: "Move to action"
Chapter 10: "Yeah but..."
Chapter 11: Move to Action
Motivate people to take action. Dialogue isn't the same as Decision Making.