Print edition: 
With a long enough lever, the mathematician Archimedes said he could move the world.
"We think we've found a lever long enough," Ron McMillan told more than 1,000 hospital and health care leaders Thursday at the Kansas Hospital Association's annual convention.
McMillan is co-author of the "Crucial Conversations" series of studies and books. And while his talk Thursday was to those in health care, it applies to any business.
The short version of his lever: "Get your head right, get your heart right, before you open your mouth," McMillan said.
What comes out could affect everything from employees' work ethic to their respect for you to the kinds of mistakes they make, he said.
What he terms crucial conversations have three elements: opposing opinions, strong emotions and high stakes.
When people learn to effectively confront others, "things change," he said: Employees become more productive and errors are reduced.
The ideal approach to a crucial conversation, he said, is to be 100 percent honest and 100 percent respectful, with an intent to help, not hurt.
After a crucial conversation, he said, it's important to have an "autopsy" to ask whether it brought the parties closer to solving a problem and whether the working relationship is good or improved.
McMillan was one of several speakers at the convention and trade show, which continues today at the Hyatt Regency and the Century II. In addition to 1,200 attendees, nearly 200 exhibitors are participating.
Most of the speakers for the convention aren't in the health care world but made their experiences relevant.
Keynote speaker John Foley, for example, is a lead solo pilot for the Blue Angels flight team and talked about building trust — the kind that allows planes to pass each other a wing's width apart.
"If you can have that level of trust... it's amazing what you can accomplish" in a team or organization, he said.
In a like manner, he said, it's important to respect every member of a team — in his case, the mechanics as well as the pilots — because all are essential.
"It's amazing what people will do for you with that respect level," he said.
