The Concepts

Diagnosing Conflict
Most of us choose to avoid conflict due to our inherent prejudices around disagreements.  But we can look at these disagreements in a new light and survey our environment for conflict and diagnose whether it is over core differences in facts, goals, methods or values.  You will learn how to help groups open a conflict to discussion and identify the underlying issue causing the disagreement.

Theory of Norms
While disagreements and conflict exist in every organization, the method and manner in which organizations embrace, resist or ignore conflict differ greatly.  You will have an opportunity to look at how your organization expects you to behave when conflict arises and how you can deal with these organizational norms to manage the differences in your organization.

Skills of Engagement
The luxury of allowing conflict to continue does not exist anymore.  By developing our personal skills we can engage in conflict and develop agreements that work more effectively. Some of the personal skills developed in the workshop are active listening, including the skill of focusing on the emotional aspect of a feedback message; distinguishing between aggressive behaviors and assertiveness; focusing on being truthful, honest and authentic, and combining these to develop and practice statements that support and confront individuals on the conflicting issue.

The Role of Personal Responsibility
We may not choose to manage all conflict and not all conflict is manageable.  But by making a choice to manage or not to manage conflict, we take a first step in being accountable for our lives and personal situations.  You will develop an understanding that it takes at least two individuals to manage conflict.  If one of those individuals is adversarial and the other is truly trying to manage the disagreement, the chances for forging a new agreement are doomed.  You will learn the distinction between negotiating for a resolution and winning.  If a person is intent upon winning, their behavior will be different than if they are willing to manage the conflict and to move toward the tension and into an unpredicted resolution.

Anger
When we are involved in conflict or witness conflict, the emotion tapped within us is usually anger.  Because manu of us fear our own anger, as well as the anger of others, we tend not to embrace or recognize the naturalness of anger.  Fearing our own anger can hurt us, and the fear of another's anger can prevent us from handling our differences.  You will learn that anger is normal, and thus how we use anger is a choice, and thus discover methods to deal with your own and other's anger.

Concepts
Target Outcomes
Agenda
Who should attend?