Managing Conflict is a time-saving trainer's resource that gives your people the skills and techniques to address conflict, with practical strategies, tips and advice for effective application of these skills in different conflict situations. Here are 20 proven activities to help your people recognise that conflict is inevitable, and that it can be healthy when appropriately managed. These time-saving activities enable the participants to develop skills and techniques for managing conflict effectively, and to achieve positive outcomes, rather than to prevent all conflict. Go beyond the theory of dealing with conflict, with practical activities and role-plays that can build skills and confidence, in a safe classroom environment.
These activities can be linked together to create your own bespoke conflict management course, or slotted into existing courses on team working, communication skills, customer care, assertiveness, negotiation, leadership skills, managing challenging behaviour however you use them, you can be sure that the activities transfer learning back to the workplace by requiring participants to relate theory and skills practice to their real-life experiences and by using learning logs to record progress and commit to further personal development. Save yourself hours of preparation time, with this off-the-shelf resource.
Each activity in Managing Conflict has been practised and perfected by the author, Caroline Love, in over 20 years' training experience. You get detailed instructions on delivery, timing, materials needed and background information, so every session is easy to prepare. You also get ready-to-photocopy OHT's and handouts plus frequent, useful tips from the author to save you time and give you additional expertise
List of Activities:
SECTION ONE: SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR ADDRESSING CONFLICT
1 Opportunity or threat?
This activity is an opportunity for the participants to identify initial, instinctive reactions to potential conflict - do they thrill with excitement at the prospect of a good debate, want to pretend it is not happening or try to achieve a mutually agreed position?
2 Core skills and processes for managing conflict:
During this activity the participants identify key skills and processes for conflict management and assess their own use of skills.
3 Personal values: the hidden volcano
This activity gives the participants a chance to consider how their personal values impact upon their ability to deal effectively with conflict and to develop strategies for remaining effective.
4 Getting the message across:
This activity focuses on the music and dance of communication, the importance of reading the signals from others, tactics to use to engage or re-engage the listener, to help reduce conflict.
5 That's not what I meant at all:
Some conflict arises out of people's inattention to what is being said or implied. This activity, through small-group exercises, enables the participants to identify the skills for effective listening and provides an opportunity to practise them.
6 Putting yourself in the other person's shoes:
This activity explores and clarifies empathy, the ability to put yourself in the other person's shoes, and provides exercises for the participants to practise demonstrating empathy, with the aim of reducing the likelihood of one-to-one conflicts.
7 Conflict escalation and how to avoid it:
This activity introduces the participants to 'games' and the Drama Triangle and provides a practice opportunity, so that the participants can get better or stay out of the game.
8 Disagreeing assertively:
This activity is an introduction to assertiveness techniques and provides a practice opportunity, so that the participants can say clearly and concisely what they mean to enable effective communication and help reduce the possibility of conflict.
9 Constructive criticism:
This activity introduces key skills for giving effective feedback, constructive criticism; and provides a practice exercise.
10 Soothing or stoking: the use of questions
This activity is an opportunity for the participants to reflect on how they currently use questions, to what extent they use them to really understand an issue from the point of view of the speaker or to satisfy their own curiosity. The participants consider the impact of their questions, identify changes and practise using effective questioning techniques.
11 Getting good results:
This activity gives the opportunity for the participants to identify and practise using a process to achieve good results and avoid possible conflict in one-to-one situations, and to avoid the temptation to just 'dive in' without considering the outcomes.
12 Keeping on track:
This activity allows the participants to identify behaviours that can lead to potential conflict, to self-assess their own behaviour and to develop strategies to manage their own potentially provocative behaviours so they keep on track.
SECTION TWO: ADDRESSING CONFLICT - APPLYING SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES IN DIFFERENT CONFLICT SITUATIONS
13 Conflict with customers:
The participants work through scenarios planned to reveal a variety of techniques for handling conflict with customers. In the discussion session that follows the group work, a model for understanding and dealing with conflict is presented and demonstrated through role-play.
14 Conflict within teams:
Conflict between members of a team is inevitable and healthy so long as it is well managed. This activity enables the participants to consider how to manage conflicts, how to create a climate where conflict is experienced as positive and how to prevent negative outcomes.
15 Finding common ground:
Some conflicts arise because individuals are only protecting their own positions and failing to focus on common interests. This activity is an opportunity for the participants to identify and practise skills and a process for finding common ground and managing one-to-one conflicts.
16 Inner conflicts: When we experience inner conflict, we are unlikely to be as effective as we normally are, nor able to use our full repertoire of skills. This activity is an opportunity for the participants to identify their own inner conflicts, and to consider how they can best manage them in order to remain as fully effective as possible.
17 Conflict in organisations:
It is all too easy for managers to end up in a cycle of negativity with staff members that leads to conflict. This activity looks at how the participants can manage the potential for conflict in their relationships with staff.
18 Managing conflict with colleagues:
Conflict with team members and other colleagues can be helpful. This activity provides the participants with an opportunity to practise their conflict management skills, using a real example.
19 Conflicts between teams:
One way to manage competition and conflicts between teams productively is to negotiate, so that each team achieves positive results. This activity allows the participants to practise team negotiating skills and to identify good practice in<>
