3 Phases to Increase Your Learning  
Phase #1 - Before Attending the Workshop
Conflict is at the heart of difficult situations. Understanding how you personally approach conflict provides a foundation for professional development. Before attending the workshop, you will be sent the Conflict Dynamics Profile® (CDP Individual Version) to complete on-line. At the workshop, you will receive a customized report of your personal strengths and work areas for handling conflict. The feedback profiles:
  • 7 constructive responses
  • 8 destructive responses
  • 9 “hot buttons” that potentially provoke conflict in you

The CDP is easy to take and requires about 20 minutes of your time. The results are confidential. Visit www.conflictdynamics.org/cdp/ for more background information on the Conflict Dynamics Profile.

Phase #2 - During the Workshop
In this workshop, you use real issues/situations of your own choosing (not other peoples’ circumstances or case studies) to practice and apply the material presented. With your particular issue(s) in mind, you will participate in a variety of interactive learning methods:

  • Confidential feedback from your Conflict Dynamics Profile
  • Informative conceptual presentations
  • Live demonstrations of skills and processes
  • Skill rehearsals on your issue(s) to expand your constructive behavioral choices and reduce negative responses, using innovative skills mats for accelerated learning, with coaching and feedback
  • Development of a specific action plan for dealing with your toughest work situation

Phase #3 - After the Workshop
The value of the workshop is judged by your application of the concepts and skills back at work, that is, by your ability to go to “the center of the storm” and skillfully facilitate positive changes to difficult situations. To support your continued use of the skills and tools following the workshop, you will receive:

  • 8 brief weekly e-mails to help you reinforce and extend your use of the skills and tools on your job

 

Participant Materials  
You will be given the following materials at the workshop to support and extend your learning:

Your personalized Conflict Dynamics Profile® and Report (Individual Version)

 

 

An I-SkillsZone Text/Workbook — (in loose-leaf binder, 194 pages) for use in class and afterwards

Other practical learning tools  — a Table-Top Skills Mat, Information Wheel Pad, and Set of 4 Pocket Cards — to apply and extend your skill use


           

 

Agenda & Schedules  
8:00 a.m.
  • A continental breakfast is provided
  • Check in and receive your Conflict Dynamics Profile results
  • Privately review your CDP feedback report

8:30 a.m.
  • The CDP and the I-SkillsZone — Managing self to influence others positively in conflict situations
  • Reducing self and other’s anxiety while engaging difficult situations — a foundational and powerful physical technique
  • B.O.S.S. — A practical guide for assessing difficult situations, establishing positive outcome criteria, focusing intervention strategy, and framing critical conversations
  • The Information Wheel® — An essential tool for organizing and expanding self-other awareness in order to understand and effectively resolve complicated issues
  • Six talking skills to increase your ability to participate constructively and be more influential in important conversations

Noon Break – A light lunch is provided


1:00 p.m.
  • The Listening Cycle® — A guide for efficiently accessing richer information while building relationship
  • Five listening skills to deepen discovery and gain accurate understanding
  • Human checkers — changing an unproductive dance — broadening your choices
  • Seven interactive guidelines for successfully conducting an effective critical conversation
  • Practice conducting a difficult conversation with coaching and feedback
  • Identifying 10 strategies for handling difficult situations
  • Developing a Systems-Map™ to choose a strategy and prepare for your most critical, difficult, or challenging conversation(s).

4:30 p.m. Workshop ends


Expect Results — Positive Outcomes  
After participating in this workshop, you will be able to:
  • Engage conflict constructively
  • Address tensions by going to the heart of an issue quickly and productively
  • Listen for deeper understanding, beyond listening for agreement
  • Discover and integrate important objective and subjective information
  • Know where and how to focus positive change
  • Think and act systemically to unlock stalemates and incorporate conflicting interests
  • Create sound, “best-fit” collaborative solutions, built on solid agreements
  • Attend to others’ nonverbals to gauge your interactive effectiveness
  • Respond constructively to anger — your own and others
  • Reduce interpersonal stress and misunderstandings
  • Transform resistance into a resource
  • Increase your interpersonal influence
  • Build trust and strong partnerships
  • Show leadership in complicated situations
  • Expand your effectiveness at relating to difficult people
  • Communicate more effectively — up, down, across, and outside your company
  • Apply the concepts and skills to challenging off-the-job situations with family, friends, and others, as well.

 

Recommendations  

"Now I've got a good road map to handle difficult situations. The tools have been extremely useful. I'm a better manager."
     CYNDY LYMAN, Manager of Environmental Health and Safety
     Corporate Express


"Great information - used the skills the next day and resolved a difficult issue with positive outcomes for all parties."
     MELINDA POWERS, Retail Services Supervisor
     SuperValu, Inc.


"A key skill I've learned from the workshop is a calm and non-threatening strategy that helps engage others in constructive dialog."
     STEWART CRAWFORD, Ph.D., Director of Technology
     BioGraphix MultiMedia


"The class teaches valuable, practical skills to listen more attentively and gain better insights as a result."
     GLEN TURPIN, Director, Corporate Communications
     Quark Inc.


“This system taught me how to fish, rather than handing me a bucket of fish.”
      BRIAN WATSON, Shipping Supervisor
      Adams McClure Company