Managing Conflicts & Difficult Situations

The Complete Guide in Handling People’s Behaviour Effectively

Introduction

The management of conflicts and difficulties is one of the most misunderstood, time-consuming and poorly handled of leadership responsibilities. Most leaders, managers and supervisors regard ‘conflict’ as something negative. However, if it is used and managed well and occurs in high-trust cultures, conflict can be a powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage. This LAKESHORE ISL Conflict Management training entitled Managing Conflicts & Difficult Situations has been specifically designed to help leaders and managers to control and reduce negative conflict, build high-trust organizational cultures and deal proactively with difficult situations using highly effective techniques. The programme incorporates the latest research from the Harvard Negotiation Project, Emotional Intelligence (EI), neuro-science, psychology, personality research and cutting-edge communication and influencing techniques. To date these specific skills and the training approach that will be employed has been used in more than 300 of the Fortune 500 companies.

This training will highlight:

• Your natural personality preferences for thinking, feeling, speaking and behaving that may trigger conflict – or help to manage it
• The default conflict-management strategies people use – both helpful and unhelpful
• The nature, types and causes of conflict and difficulty – inter-personal and strategic
• Highly effective strategic and verbal techniques to address conflict and difficulties at both the individual and organizational level
• How to structure your meetings, presentations and communications to reduce negative conflict and encourage healthy debate

Objectives

This training is designed to help you to:

• Identify the common types and sources of conflict in your workplace
• Appreciate your own and other’s personality profiles and preferred conflict approaches
• Understand the predictable emotional triggers and responses to conflict
• Differentiate between assertive, passive and aggressive behaviours
• Deal with difficult people and situations using a large range of powerful techniques

At the end of this training, you will learn how to:

• Understand the root causes of conflict in the workplace
• Determine people’s preferred conflict styles
• Adopt the most effective skills and techniques to swiftly address the issues
• Feel confident, competent and in command when handling difficult situations
• Hold those ‘crucial conversations’ with others regarding their contribution, behaviour or attitude

Training Methodology

This Conflict Management training will use a range of approaches to learning, including experiential group activities, individual exercises, mini-case studies, role plays and discussions. Graphical materials and stimulating explanations will be used to introduce underlying models. A key part of the learning process is sharing the different experiences you will bring to this LAKESHORE ISL training, as well as experimenting with novel – and sometimes challenging – practical techniques. An MBTI-type (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) profile will be used to give you an insight into how your own and other’s personality can contribute to creating or resolving conflicts. In addition, the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode profile will reveal what a person’s default conflict-management strategy is and the Social Styles profile will suggest how you could better handle it.

Organisational Impact

By attending this training and applying the insights, your organization will benefit from:

• Having a high-trust culture of openness, integrity and certainty
• Stronger working relationships, greater collaboration and discretionary effort
• Enhanced ability of employees to resolve their own problems and difficulties so avoiding extended disruptions
• Reduced workplace stress and tension that results in improved morale
• Constructive resolution of conflicts and challenges
• Higher levels of organizational productivity

Personal Impact

An AMA survey by Thomas & Schmidt found that managers spend between 18–26% of their time dealing with conflicts; that can amount to 10 hours of your valuable time per week! As a leader, manager or supervisor, this training will help you to:

• Recognize the warning signs of conflict early on
• Address the issues quickly and effectively
• Increase the overall productivity of your team or department
• Focus on more important strategic and operational matters
• Master a skill set that’s essential in more senior roles
• Gain credibility in the eyes of senior management

Who Should Attend?

Leaders, managers and team leaders/supervisors who need to take charge of – and resolve – conflicts or difficult situations that could have a negative impact on performance, effectiveness and relationships. The seminar would also benefit junior / middle managers new to their role, or with experience but little previous training.

Seminar Outline

DAY 1

Understanding The Nature and Impact of Conflict and Difficulties in The Workplace

• Appreciating Why Conflict and Difficulties Need to be Addressed Proactively
• Defining The Terms of Reference: Conflict, Difficulties, Competing, Accommodating, etc.
• Understanding How Your Personality Can Contribute to Creating Conflicts Using The Social Styles Questionnaire
• Recognising Your Default Conflict-management Strategy Using The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Questionnaire
• Considering The Nature, Types and Causes of Conflict
• Identifying The Common Manifestations and Sources of Conflict in The Workplace
• Constructing a Framework For Understanding and Managing Organisational Conflict
• Preparing For The Predictable Conflicts Associated with Team Development
• Acknowledging How Demographic Shifts in The Workplace can lead to increased Conflict
• Understanding The Psychology of Conflict and Aggression in The Workplace

DAY 2

Understanding What Makes Communication Challenging

• Deep Psychological Insights into The Origins of People’s Behaviour
• Understanding Our Own and Other’s Personality Preferences Using The MBTI Questionnaire
• Acknowledging The Subconscious Factors That Influence Behaviour
• Determining The Personal Agendas and Intentions of Others
• Recognising The Values or ‘hot buttons’of Others
• Clarifying The Motivations or Drivers of Individuals and Groups
• Differentiating between A Person’s ‘positions’and ‘interests’
• How Our Perceptions can come become Projections We Cast onto Others
• Mixed Messages – When there is a Conflict between Verbal and Non-verbal Language
• Being Aware of and Understanding The Major Communication Filters

DAY 3

Mastering Advanced Communications Skills For Collaboration

• Using A Knowledge of Personality Preferences to Better Communicate With and Influence Others
• Utilising The Four Major Sensory Channels to Communicate at a Deeper Level
• Establishing and Maintaining Rapport to Fully Appreciate Another Person’s Situation
• Displaying Active Listening Skills to Validate Others’ Needs
• Asking The Right Types of Questions – and Appreciating Why They are being Asked of You
• Framing and Re-framing Issues to Facilitate Better Understanding and Finding A Way Forward
• Listening to Understand and Speaking to be Understood
• Utilising The Powerful Insights and Techniques of Emotional Intelligence (EI)
• Using Your Personal Power to Positively Impact Others
• Ensuring that Your Words Trigger Action not Reaction, and Inspire rather than Derail

DAY 4

Processes and Techniques to Handle Challenging or Difficult Conversations

• Using The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Modes to Manage Conflict and Difficult Situations
• Anticipating The Main Kinds of Difficult Conversation You Need to Have
• Structuring such‘crucial conversations’ to Produce Optimal Results
• Recognising and Handling Ineffective Conflict Responses
• Knowing and Exploiting Effective Approaches to Conflicts
• Dealing with Strong Emotions such as Anger, Rage and Frustration
• Using The Three Step Strategy to Address Serious Challenges
• Influencing with Integrity by Living Your Values and Acting as a Role Model
• Knowing When and How to Use Negotiation, and other Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Strategies, to Address Conflict
• Recognising that‘1 in 20 employee’ – The Organizational Sociopath – and How to Handle Them

DAY 5

Building High-trust Cultures Where Positive Conflict is Actively Encouraged

• Acknowledging The Public’s Judgement of ‘toxic’Organizational Cultures
• Understanding The Key Elements of Your Organisation’s Culture
• Comparing The Characteristics of High-trust vs. Low-trust Cultures
• Identifying Where and How Cultures Contribute To – and Maintain – Conflicts and Difficulties
• Introducing and Embedding The Key Elements of High-trust Cultures into Your Organisation
• Using The Power of Strategic Planning to Establish Appropriate Values and Behaviours
• Making Conflict Management a Strategic Advantage For Your Organisation
• Using Transformational Leadership to Create Positive Conflict that Stimulates and Challenges Current Thinking and Performance
• Attracting and Retaining Outstanding Talent by Making Your Organization a Highly Desirable and Exciting Place to Work
• Applying The Principles covered to Add to Your Organisational and Professional Reputation, Managerial Impact, Gravitas and Charisma