Joshua Kaufman
Relational Facilitator
Imagine if conversations at work were clearer, calmer, and more productive.
How would it feel to work in a team where people:
- listen carefully and reflect understanding before responding
- facilitate inclusive meetings that move the project forward
- stay calm and constructive even when conversations become difficult
These are relational skills. They shape how teams collaborate, how decisions get made, and how much trust exists around the work.
What is relational fluency?
Modern product development depends on collaboration between designers, engineers, and product managers. Yet very few people are taught how to facilitate those conversations well.
Relational Fluency is a live six-week cohort for tech professionals who want to become more effective in the conversations that shape product outcomes and working relationships.
What you'll learn
Each session builds on the last, moving from the foundations of clear communication toward the harder conversations most people spend their careers avoiding. By week six, you'll have practised the full range of relational skills.
- Week 1: Setting clear context for discussions
- Week 2: Listening and reflecting back to ensure shared understanding
- Week 3: Facilitating discussions that lead to decisions
- Week 4: Giving and receiving feedback with care
- Week 5: Communicating with composure under pressure
- Week 6: Surfacing disagreement before it becomes conflict
The thread connecting these skills is psychological safety, which research consistently shows is the strongest predictor of high performing teams.
Session structure
Each session is designed to help you learn and practice a core skill, not just understand it conceptually.
A typical session will include:
- welcome and context setting to get everyone aligned
- a short breakout discussion grounded in real work scenarios
- a clear, practical lesson you can apply immediately
- practice in pairs or small groups
- group reflection to notice what worked and what didn’t
- wrap up with something you can take into your next conversation
Who this is for
Relational Fluency is designed for people who work in collaborative product environments and want to improve how conversations happen around the work.
This cohort may be a good fit if you:
- regularly leave meetings unsure whether the room was actually aligned
- find it hard to raise tensions before they become problems
- want to give feedback more honestly without damaging the relationship
- feel more comfortable solving problems than navigating the people side of them
- care about how your team works together, not just what they deliver
Why this matters now
As AI tools accelerate software development, the bottleneck in many teams is shifting.
Technical work is becoming easier to generate, but the conversations that shape decisions, alignment, and trust remain deeply human.
As the cost of cognitive work falls, economic value shifts toward the skills that remain scarce:
- emotional intelligence
- high-stakes decision making
- human empathy
In product teams, these show up as relational skills, which is the focus of Relational Fluency.
About the facilitator
I've spent more than 25 years working in technology, designing digital products and leading cross-functional teams at scale. I know what it feels like when the relational dynamics on a team quietly undermine the work, because I've lived it from both sides.
Alongside my career in product design, I trained as an integral coach and relational facilitator, focusing specifically on communication, trust, and the harder conversations that shape how teams work together.
Relational Fluency sits at the intersection of these two worlds. It combines practical experience from the tech industry with skills that help people navigate the conversations that shape product outcomes and working relationships.
The next Relational Fluency cohort
All sessions take place on Wednesdays from 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM (BST).
- Wed, 15 April
- Wed, 22 April
- Wed, 6 May
- Wed, 13 May
- Wed, 20 May
- Wed, 27 May
Please note there is no session on 29 April.
Cost
£300.00, payable upon sign up. This is an introductory rate and will increase for future cohorts. Please see the Terms & Conditions for the refund policy.
Apply
Taking a course about communication can feel unexpectedly personal, and this is usually a sign you're in the right place.
If this work resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you. Applications are open now, and I'm also holding a waitlist for the next cohort.
Questions?
If you have questions, please email me at .
