Conflict

This pre-work module has participants reflect on their own conflict habits before a live conflict session. Participants identify the conflict style they default to and the one they find hardest to use, consider what makes conflict productive versus difficult for them, and select a real, current or upcoming conflict ??? interpersonal, cross-functional, or with a customer or client ??? to bring into the workshop as a working example for later tools.

This module introduces a framework for approaching workplace conflict with more intention. Participants examine their own default conflict style through the Thomas-Kilmann Model (Five Modes of Conflict), learn how to assess a given conflict to pick the right approach, and get an overview of a collaborative conflict process for handling difficult conversations. Through breakout discussions, participants identify a real, current conflict???interpersonal, cross-functional, or with a client or direct report???that they'll use as a working example throughout the rest of the workshop.

This module introduces the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, a framework for understanding how people approach conflict based on two dimensions: assertiveness (satisfying your own interests) and cooperativeness (satisfying the other person's interests). Participants examine all five modes???Competing, Accommodating, Avoiding, Compromising, and Collaborating???along with when each is useful and when it backfires, then practice choosing an approach using the STOP method (Stop, Take a breath, Observe, Pick an approach). A poll and discussion help participants identify their own default conflict style and where they might need to stretch into modes they use less often.

This module teaches a structured way to diagnose a conflict before choosing how to handle it, using eight assessment questions (covering stress, complexity, importance of the topic, time, trust, communication skills, cultural norms, and relationship importance) to select among the five Thomas-Kilmann conflict styles: Competing, Accommodating, Avoiding, Compromising, and Collaborating. Participants apply the assessment to workplace case studies, including scenarios like a manager weighing whether to address a team member's schedule flexibility, a heated Slack thread about office trash cans, and a disagreement with an Internal Comms colleague over how to communicate a project update, then discuss and agree on the most appropriate conflict style and rationale for each.

This module teaches a step-by-step process for resolving conflict collaboratively rather than positionally???shifting from "me versus you" to "us versus the problem." Participants learn to open a conflict conversation by creating psychological safety, use the "step in, step out" tool to recognize and recover from fight-or-flight moments, and work through a conflict analysis phase built on listening, asking open-ended questions, and reframing the issue around shared goals. Practice is anchored in a scenario where participants play a team manager whose reports are being delayed by a cross-functional analytics team; the process and tools generalize to any workplace conflict where an ongoing working relationship needs to be preserved. Exercises include converting closed questions into open ones and drafting open questions and safety cues for participants' own real conflicts.

This module teaches two tools for turning conflict and pushback into constructive dialogue: Reframing, and Acknowledge > Reframe > Offer. Participants first practice rewriting blame-focused statements (like "your team is impossible to work with") into neutral, forward-looking language that captures underlying needs and interests. They then apply Acknowledge > Reframe > Offer???a three-step structure for delivering a difficult "no"???to tech-team scenarios such as declining a last-minute feature request, pushing back on a mid-development redesign, or phasing out a legacy integration. In a partner exercise, participants draft and deliver their own pushback message for a real stakeholder situation, then give each other feedback and swap roles.

This module looks at how conflict plays out when teams communicate remotely rather than face-to-face. Using a short video ("Lose a Fight") as a discussion trigger, participants examine how tone, body language, and word choice change???and can be misread???when disagreements happen over email, chat, or video calls instead of in person. The exercise generalizes to any remote or hybrid work conflict where physical cues are limited or absent.

This module teaches the Three R's framework for de-escalating tense conversations: Recognize, Reframe, and Resolve. Participants learn to spot fight-or-flight signals in themselves and others, validate emotions and underlying needs, shift language from what went wrong to what can happen next, and time solutions for when the other person has calmed down. Practice happens through a customer-service role-play scenario (CSR, angry customer, observer) where participants rotate roles to apply the Three R's to a frustrated-customer situation; the approach generalizes to any tense, emotionally charged conversation.

This closing module wraps up the Conflict deliverable by consolidating what participants learned about the Thomas-Kilmann Model of five conflict modes, how to assess a conflict situation to pick an effective approach, techniques for conducting collaborative conflict conversations, and common causes of conflict in remote teams. Participants reflect on their learning and commit to specific tools they'll apply the next time they're in a negative mindset, then close with a lighthearted "Gift Giving" exercise where they mime giving a colleague a gift and explain why it suits them, as a way to practice expressing gratitude for one another.