Handling Conflict and Difficult Situations

Who and why?

This course develops the people skills needed to manage conflict effectively. In particular, it introduces techniques to make these skills an integral part of everyday business life and uses real situations to enable you to build confidence. Conflict can have a positive effect, but left unchecked it can result in reduced creativity and productivity, lost commitment, and wasted financial resources.

By taking a number of conflict management tools, techniques and theories and putting them into practical situations, this course aims to turn conflict into a productive force.

Course overview

You will explore the stages in the evolution of conflict, why it arises and what can be done to avoid escalation. You will learn how to handle difficult situations which includes recognising and managing emotions in yourself and others and how to adopt an assertive response. You will examine the thought processes that lead to conflict in the workplace.

You will spend time reflecting on any current conflicts, reviewing your previous approaches and looking at how you can modify your thinking and actions, in order to influence the overall outcome. You will look at how to approach challenging, one-to-one conversations, including when it is necessary to deliver feedback which may be hard to hear.

The emphasis will be on trying out practical new approaches and techniques that you can apply to resolve current and future conflict.

Key learning points

By the end of the course delegates will be able to:

• Identify exactly what conflict is, why it arises and how it can be utilised for maximum benefit 
• Recognise the various stages of conflict and preventing them from escalating 
• Defuse potential clashes before they arise 
• Deal with conflict with a greater awareness of the conflict management style of themselves and others 
• Use the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Model to assess the different approaches 
• Utilise a variety of methods for managing difficult situations successfully 
• Tackle a variety of “difficult” conversations with increased skill and confidence 
• Engage with conflict in a way that creates stronger, more productive relationships 
• Give clear, constructive feedback with confidence