Course · Communication

Conflict Resolution for Managers

A practical course for people who manage others: how to diagnose a conflict, choose a strategy, hold a difficult conversation, reconcile two of your reports, stand firm in a conversation with a “star,” and build a team where disagreement is fuel, not war.

Course authors

PepelenCourse author

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Module 1. Diagnosis: what you're dealing with

Lesson 1. An argument about the issue, or a war between people

6 exercises · Tell task conflict and relationship conflict apart and respond to each differently.

Lesson 2. Positions and interests

6 exercises · Translate the parties' demands into the interests behind them and look for a solution at the level of interests.

Lesson 3. The escalation ladder

6 exercises · Determine how deep a conflict has gone and choose your intervention by its depth.

Module 2. Five strategies for handling conflict

Lesson 1. A map of the five strategies

6 exercises · Recognize the five strategies for handling conflict and the two axes that distinguish them.

Lesson 2. When to push, give in, or step away

6 exercises · Choose a strategy to fit the situation and see the cost of always relying on one.

Lesson 3. Compromise isn't always a win

6 exercises · Tell compromise from collaboration, and choose collaboration for important and recurring conflicts.

Module 3. The difficult one-on-one

Lesson 1. Facts vs. interpretations

6 exercises · Open a difficult conversation with an observable fact, not an interpretation.

Lesson 2. The SBI formula

6 exercises · Frame a problem with SBI: situation, behavior, impact — without judgments and with a question at the end.

Lesson 3. Listen, then agree

6 exercises · Keep a conversation on track through a defensive reaction: paraphrase, acknowledge the legitimate part, reach an agreement with a date.

Module 4. The manager as mediator

Lesson 1. To step in or not

6 exercises · Decide, using three criteria, when to step into a conflict between your reports and when not to.

Lesson 2. The mediation protocol

6 exercises · Run mediation between your reports in six steps, without changing their order.

Lesson 3. The mediator's traps

6 exercises · Stay neutral: don't judge, don't rescue, don't carry other people's grievances.

Module 5. Hard cases

Lesson 1. The toxic star

6 exercises · Count the full cost of a “star” and handle a conversation about behavior with your strongest performer.

Lesson 2. Conflict with your boss

6 exercises · Handle conflict upward: show the cost of a decision and offer an alternative without challenging the right to decide.

Lesson 3. An outburst, here and now

6 exercises · Act at the acute emotional peak: slow the pace, acknowledge the emotion, postpone the substance.

Module 6. The team and the system

Lesson 1. Conflict in writing

6 exercises · Stop written arguments with the two-round rule and move them to voice.

Lesson 2. The meeting that blew up

6 exercises · Facilitate an argument in a meeting: decision criteria, separating generating ideas from critiquing them, a decision owner.

Lesson 3. Prevention: the ground rules

6 exercises · Build team rules and psychological safety where disagreement is cheap and conflicts don't fester.