Conflict Resolution
Shovel While Your Piles are Still Small
❝ Getting through conflict is not luck, it is a carefully crafted process. ~ Michael Fraidenburg
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, 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.
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 advancing the organization’s goals—not to mention improving working relationships.
Enhance commitment. Working through conflict helps people distinguish between ‘me’ versus ‘them’. When people start thinking about ‘us’ that commitment 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 unique opinions and ideas, they offer others an opportunity to look at situations differently. 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. Preserving 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 be 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.
This course covers,
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 is this Course For?
If you need to solve problems without damaging relationships, this course is for you. Professionals who work with the public. Managers who supervise teams or supervise partnerships with other organizations. Organization leaders who manage external relations and maintain their organization’s legitimacy to operate in their community. People who play the role of peacemaker in their organizations. Professionals who help people negotiate their differences into an agreement.
What is Unique in this Course?
The core principle 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. Participants learn a valuable leadership skill—how to be a person who does not avoid conflict but, instead, keeps it from halting progress.