Course Highlights
This virtual conflict resolution course will:
- Identify the common sources of workplace conflict and examine what stops most people from addressing disagreements directly.
- Explore how biology, communication style, and generational and cultural differences shape the way conflict is experienced and expressed.
- Examine the benefits of conflict handled well, including the innovation, discovery, and stronger relationships that productive disagreement can produce.
- Introduce the Thomas-Kilmann conflict management styles and four conflict resolution outcomes, with guidance on applying each deliberately.
- Present a five-step conflict resolution model and the four elements that determine whether any resolution attempt actually holds.
- Build the listening, empathy, and situational awareness skills that keep difficult conversations productive and relationships intact.
Program Overview
Conflict at work is not the problem. Avoiding it, mishandling it, or treating every disagreement as a threat is the problem. Handled with skill and intention, conflict produces better ideas, surfaces hidden assumptions, and strengthens the relationships it initially strains. This two-segment virtual course gives participants the tools to produce those outcomes rather than the ones that derail teams and damage trust.
Segment one examines what conflict is, where it comes from, and how it typically lands when people are not prepared for it. The discussion covers the biology of triggered reactions, the communication and cultural factors that influence how disagreement plays out, and the five conflict management styles that determine which direction a situation goes. Segment two turns to the process and skills required to resolve conflict well: a structured five-step model, the mindset and trigger awareness that make the model work under real pressure, and the listening and empathy tools that allow both parties to feel heard before resolution becomes possible.
The following outline highlights the course’s main learning points. For virtual delivery, the structure and timing are intentionally set to support discussion and practice. We can adjust emphasis or drop select elements based on your business priorities. Upon request, we can preview the participant materials with you prior to the session(s).
Segment One Objectives
At this segment’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Identify the factors that create conflict in the workplace.
- Recognize common sources of conflict.
- Articulate the benefits of conflict.
- Identify possible responses to conflict.
- Explain possible outcomes.
- Work toward a deliberate goal.
Segment One Modules
Something’s Brewing: Sources of Disagreement
The first segment opens with a question the group will return to throughout the course: what stops people from addressing conflict when it surfaces? Six common sources of workplace disagreement establish the baseline — communication problems, personality differences, limited resources, task interdependence, incompatible goals, and lack of organizational direction or structure — before the discussion turns to the newer stressors that have added friction to most professional environments. The session also examines the relationship between conflict and performance, establishing that conflict avoided is not conflict resolved, and that the cost of leaving disagreement unaddressed tends to compound over time.
From Watered Down to Bitter: Responses to Conflict Explained
Not all conflict responses are created equal. This module examines what happens biologically when a conflict catches people off guard — the amygdala hijack that floods the body with adrenaline and reduces access to rational thought — and connects that biological reality to the three response patterns that most often follow: surprise, confusion, and self-defeating behavior. Learners will examine the difference between constructive and destructive responses to conflict, discuss what drives people toward each, and identify the specific conditions that tend to push their own response in one direction or the other.
A Matter of Taste: Elements That Influence Position
Communication style shapes how conflict unfolds long before either party says anything about the disagreement itself. This module examines the two primary drivers of communication style — concern for task and concern for the relationship — and how different orientations along those two axes produce predictable friction. The discussion then broadens to the generational and cultural factors that influence how people experience authority, time, rules, and the appropriate way to express disagreement. Participants will examine where their own defaults sit and discuss what adjustment looks like when the person on the other side of the conflict operates from a different set of assumptions.
Cool Beans!: Beneficial Aspects of Conflict
Conflict avoided costs more than conflict addressed. This module makes the positive case: the specific ways that well-managed disagreement produces better ideas, surfaces inaccurate assumptions, drives innovation, and clarifies goals that misalignment had left fuzzy. The group will examine examples of conflict that produced genuine organizational improvement and discuss what conditions made that outcome possible rather than the more familiar destructive ones.
Dark, Light, Decaffeinated: Conflict Resolution Styles
The Thomas-Kilmann framework maps five conflict management styles — compete, collaborate, accommodate, avoid, and compromise — along two axes: assertiveness and cooperativeness. Each style has conditions under which it is the right choice and conditions under which it is the wrong one. Attendees will complete the style assessment, examine their dominant orientation and its tendencies under pressure, and discuss the situations in their own professional lives where a different style would have produced a better outcome.
Through the Filter: Conflict Outcomes
The session closes with the four possible outcomes of any conflict: win-win, win-lose, lose-win, and lose-lose. The group will examine what produces each outcome, which styles from the previous module tend to lead toward each one, and what a deliberate goal looks like before a conflict conversation begins. The segment closes with a structured reflection on the most useful new ideas from the session and how each participant intends to apply them.
Segment Two Objectives
At this segment’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Identify potential points of disagreement before they surface.
- Outline a conflict resolution model.
- Choose from five conflict management styles.
- Employ interpersonal communication skills to manage conflict.
Segment Two Modules
Planning the Harvest: Outlining a Conflict Resolution Model
The second segment opens with a five-step framework for resolving conflict: define and clarify the problem, get all sides of the story, explore alternatives, choose a solution, and evaluate. Each step is examined in detail, with attention to what typically goes wrong when it is skipped or rushed. The group will apply the framework to a realistic conflict scenario and identify the step where their past approaches have most often broken down.
Tending the Field: A Mindset for Managing Conflict
A framework is only as effective as the mindset behind it. This module introduces the four elements that determine whether a resolution attempt holds: attitude, learning, intentional choices, and practice. The discussion then turns to self-management — specifically, trigger awareness. Learners will identify the words, behaviors, and dynamics that pull them out of a constructive response and into a reactive one, and examine the specific strategies most effective for managing those triggers before they hijack the conversation.
Minding the Pot: Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Before a conflict conversation begins, three questions determine how it is likely to go: what do I want, what does the other person want, and what do we both need from this situation? This module introduces a set of situational awareness practices — establishing ground rules, choosing the right time and place, and creating a mutual understanding of the conversation’s purpose — that shift the conditions for resolution before anyone has said a difficult word. The group will apply the three-question framework to a realistic scenario and examine how different answers to each question change the strategy.
Good Growing Conditions: Creating a Positive Atmosphere
Empathy is not a soft skill. It is the mechanism that makes the other person feel heard, validated, and respected — and without those three conditions, most resolution attempts stall at the first sign of resistance. This part of the course examines what empathy actually requires in a professional conflict context, how it differs from agreement or sympathy, and what specific behaviors produce its effects. Participants will discuss how the absence of a felt sense of being heard tends to produce the defensive behavior that makes resolution harder, and what a facilitator or participant can do to restore those conditions when they have broken down.
Pulping the Cherries: Tools for Better Listening and Empathy
Listening is the skill most people believe they already have and most consistently underperform. This module introduces the NAIL listening framework and examines the practical difference between active and passive listening in a conflict context. Attendees will review a set of specific listening behaviors and identify the ones they most reliably skip under pressure. The session closes with the three-step empathetic response — acknowledge what was heard, apologize or agree where appropriate, and validate feelings — with worked examples that demonstrate what each step sounds like when the conversation is genuinely difficult.
Planting Future Seeds: Follow-Up to Regain Trust
Resolution is not the end of the work. This module examines what closing the loop looks like after a conflict conversation and applies the listening and empathy tools from the previous module to three realistic cases. In the first, a direct report did not receive public recognition despite strong work. In the second, a customer received an order late despite advance notice of a delay and is on the phone upset. In the third, a boss is disappointed with last quarter’s results on a team that faced significant turnover and factors outside its control. The group will work through each case and practice the acknowledgment, agreement, and validation responses before the session ends.
Target Audience
This training is designed for groups that want to:
- Build practical skills for navigating workplace disagreements constructively.
- Develop a shared language and framework for addressing conflict before it escalates.
- Strengthen the listening and empathy skills that keep professional relationships functional through difficult conversations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who should attend this virtual conflict course?
This course works well for professionals at any level who encounter disagreement at work and want a more structured approach for handling it. It is equally useful for people who avoid conflict and want more confidence engaging it and for those who engage frequently but without a consistent method. Teams that attend together benefit from shared language and a common framework for the situations they face after the program ends.
How is this course structured across the two segments?
Segment one focuses on understanding conflict: where it comes from, how it typically lands when people are not prepared, what drives different conflict management styles, and what outcomes those styles tend to produce. Segment two focuses on resolution and communication: a five-step model, the mindset and self-management skills that make the model work under pressure, and the listening and empathy tools that keep difficult conversations productive.
Does this course address the biology of conflict reactions?
Yes. The segment one module on responses to conflict examines the amygdala hijack — what happens neurologically when conflict catches people off guard and why rational response requires deliberate effort under those conditions. That biological foundation informs the self-management and trigger awareness content in segment two.
How much of the program involves discussion and practice?
Both segments are built around discussion and application rather than one-way instruction. Polls, breakout discussions, case applications, and the style assessment all require active engagement. The three case studies in the final module give participants the opportunity to practice the listening and empathy tools before the session ends.
Can the content be adjusted for our team’s specific situation?
Yes. Before the session, we discuss the conflict dynamics most relevant to your group and adjust the examples, scenarios, and emphasis accordingly. Teams dealing primarily with cross-functional friction may spend more time on the communication style and situational awareness modules. Those focused on rebuilding trust after a specific event may go deeper on the follow-up and empathy tools.