Benefits

A small conflict can turn into a big one if you don’t deal with it.  The pile gets bigger and bigger until—KABOOM!  Don’t wait for a conflict to blow up.  Intervene early with the skills from this workshop and you get some important benefits.

Constructive change.  Conflict resolution facilitates positive change.  If problems and disagreements are ignored rather than handled constructively, things can only go one of two ways; either they stay the same or they get worse.  But, when people discuss their differences and work through them together, the stage is set for positive change to occur.

Keep the focus on your goals.  People who know how to manage conflict help themselves and their organization at the same time.  Unresolved conflict can stall progress.  As people work through conflicts, they make progress toward accomplishing their personal goals as well as advance the organization’s overall goals.

Enhance commitment.  Working through conflict gets those involved to start thinking about ‘us’ versus ‘me’.  This enhances a commitment of the parties that benefits the organization.  Better conflict resolution helps develop trust, respect, and teamwork and helps individuals stay open minded and flexible.

Sharpen your organization’s growing edge.  Conflict is an issue—but it also is a symptom.  The existence of conflict can be a sign that the status quo is not working.  Constructive conflict resolution can lead to new insights.  If everyone agreed all the time, there would be no reason to consider different perspectives or look for new ways to handle situations.  When people share their own unique opinions and ideas, they offer others an opportunity to look at situations in a different way.  Often, the best ideas are those that combine different points of view.  These ideas regularly arise from the creative problem-solving that conflict resolution requires.

Preserve relationships.  The people in conflict may well need each other in the future.  Preservation of relationships can be a key benefit of constructive conflict resolution.  Gain this benefit when people focus on effectively communicating with each other as opposed to attacking each other.

Peace of mind.  Conflict can lay on a person like a heavy burden.  Constructive conflict resolution is not avoiding problems, instead, it is freedom from that burden.  Handling things right can relegate conflict to the past and let everyone step forward feeling good about the future.  

What This Workshop is About

This dynamic, hands-on workshop gives participants an understanding of effective ways to deal with difficult situations and people.  Participants will get extensive practice with skills that can be applied immediately.  We teach the principles and techniques used by professional mediators to get people to work with one another, not against each other.  We cover:

• Personal conflict survival attitudes and skills.

• Suspending judgment and diagnosing what's going on in the conflict.

• Facilitating quality, respectful communications.

• Engaging disputants in a search for common values.

• Analyzing conflict styles and the anger arousal cycle.

• Performing constructive interventions.

• Balancing power differences.

• Applying a simple, effective, conflict resolution model.

• Creating durable agreements.

• Knowing when to bring in a neutral third party.

Who This Course is For

What is unique in this course?

The core principle taught is, ‘Interest-Based Bargaining’—the basis for win-win negotiations.  We focus on diagnosing the sources of conflict, designing a constructive conflict resolution process, communication skills that foster cooperation, dealing with bad behavior, and creating agreements that last.  The overall goal of the course is for attendees to walk away with an understanding of principles and techniques for maintaining a professional demeanor while exerting positive leadership in managing conflicts.  We  teach each other how to be a good manager, one who doesn’t try to eliminate conflict but, instead, keeps it from halting progress. 

What You Can Expect in All Our Workshops

Teaching Model

We use a Tell → Show → Do → Teach-Back Model

• Tell: We present what we know about the skills being taught.

• Show: We demonstrate how the skills are applied through lecture, exercises, facilitated discussion, etc.

• Do: We have participants practice the skills using team assignments, role plays, mock activities, etc.

• Teach-Back: We wrap up topics with peer-to-peer and instructor advice on how to apply the new skills in the real-world.

How We Present This Material

We come to you and present at your work site or offer remote teaching using Internet sharing tools when appropriate.  We use discussion, exercises, lecture, and mock exercises to combine our experience with your staff’s experience and create a dynamic, fun, and highly interactive training.

Transform Your Staff

Learning is not complete until there is application.  We ask participants to discuss how they can maintain the momentum in their organization after we, as trainers, leave.  We also share our ideas on how to form ‘Master Mind’ groups and other supports so participants have a community of knowledgeable peers who can help one another successfully apply the skills after the course.  We also make ourselves available after the event for short consultations for brainstorming solutions, problem solving, etc. for free.

Customization