Overview
Conflict, defined as the willingness to have and resolve disagreements
resulting in the highest quality outcomes that lead to high performance has
been, and continues to be, a major challenge for most organizations. To help
assess your, and your organizations, strengths and weaknesses regarding having
and resolving conflict evaluate both against the key “Supportive Skills and
Behaviors of Conflict” and the key “Harmful Skills and Behaviors”.
If you or your organization are comfortable with conflict these
supportive skills and behaviors are regularly practiced:
- Leadership realizes that disagreement is to be encouraged and embraced
from any and all levels and is the fuel that drives rapid change, new ideas,
creativity and innovation
- Employees are comfortable to express disagreement to any and all levels in
an assertive manner
- Employees understand the process and skill of resolving disagreements that
result in the highest quality outcomes with support by all
- When issues/problems occur, people address them quickly focusing on the
solution not the problem or person
- Diverse viewpoints (disagreements) are seen as an opportunity to produce
higher quality decisions
If you or your organization are uncomfortable with conflict these
harmful skills and behaviors occur regularly:
- Leadership views disagreement as a threat therefore it is discouraged, or
worse, punished
- Dominant employees “win” disagreements using real or perceived power
silencing potential solutions
- Employees disagree silently then undermine or sabotage the outcome (give
in then get even)
- Employees avoid disagreements for fear of reprimands resulting in slow
change and stagnation
- Daily mistakes and errors are not reported (or are covered up) resulting
in regular negative surprises
- Front line employees become aware of problems and/or customer
dissatisfaction but say nothing
If either you or your organization fall short when assessing the critical
skills and competencies of conflict management and resolution do not dismay;
most organizations struggle with this issue. Fortunately there is good news;
there are defined and observable skills and behaviors that drive fast changing,
innovative and customer focused organizations that can be learned and practiced
that result in high performance.
To address the “skills and competencies gaps” we have designed a dynamic and
interactive workshop that is appropriate for individual contributors and all
levels of management. The focus, objectives and outcomes of this workshop are:
- Assessing and understanding your individual and most comfortable methods
of resolving conflict
- Learn when to use each method of conflict resolution and understand the
ramifications of each method
- Learn to use conflict as a source of personal energy and creativity
- Understand the importance of effective communication skills that ensure no
ambiguity while holding everyone accountable
- Realize the importance of Assertive behavior and how to practice it to
achieve high performance “win-win” outcomes
- Learn the importance of active listening, probing effectively to
understand the “real” issues and demonstrating empathy
- Learn the process of “team decision making” that results in the highest
quality decisions with buyin from all members
- Understand that creating a culture of blame and criticism is the “cancer”
that destroys effective conflict management and resolution
- Gain a greater understanding of how and why conflict occurs
- How to prepare and conduct difficult conflict resolution
discussions
Other Information:
- The session will be delivered on the Zoom platform so all participants
will work from their own workspace and use their own computer. Zoom has video
capability but, if the participant’s computer is not equipped with a camera,
audio will also work.
- Participants should enter the Zoom training room at least 15 minutes (8:45
AM) before the start time.