Course Highlights
This two-day conflict resolution and conflict management workshop will:
- Open with a scored self-assessment that gives participants an honest baseline across five dimensions of conflict knowledge and skill.
- Examine the root causes and organizational effects of workplace conflict, including the positive outcomes that well-managed conflict consistently produces.
- Present four conflict resolution outcomes and five conflict resolution approaches, with guidance for selecting the right strategy based on the situation.
- Introduce the PEACE model, a structured five-phase framework for moving a conflict from initial identification through agreement and follow-up.
- Develop the communication, questioning, and listening skills that make the PEACE model effective in practice.
- Address cultural dimensions of conflict and the conditions that call for external mediation or arbitration.
- Distinguish between conflict resolution and conflict management, and establish when each applies.
- Introduce the ALIGN framework for managers addressing repeated behavior after a prior conversation has not produced change.
- Introduce FORGE, a BTW framework for professionals navigating an ongoing conflict that is not going to resolve, with practical tools for each of the five elements.
- Close with extended case study application and a personal action plan tied to specific behavioral commitments.
Program Overview
Most conflict training teaches resolution. It assumes that if the right frameworks are applied and the right conversations are had, the disagreement will end. That assumption is accurate often enough to make resolution training worth doing. It is wrong often enough to leave a significant gap.
This two-day workshop fills both sides of that gap. Day one is built around conflict resolution: the frameworks, the communication skills, the structured process, and the cultural awareness required to move a disagreement toward a workable outcome. Day two addresses what happens when resolution is not the goal or not yet achievable — when a relationship must be managed rather than repaired, when a manager needs to hold someone accountable for repeated behavior, or when a professional is stuck in a dynamic that is not going to change and needs to survive it professionally and psychologically without letting it damage their work or their reputation.
The distinction between resolution and management is not a consolation prize. It is a different set of skills for a different set of situations. Organizations that develop both produce people who can handle the full range of what conflict at work actually looks like.
The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).
Day One: Conflict Resolution
Session Objectives
At this session’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Assess their conflict resolution skills across five dimensions and identify priorities for development.
- Explain twenty root causes of workplace conflict and describe how unresolved conflict affects individuals and organizations.
- Distinguish among four conflict resolution outcomes and select the most appropriate one for a given situation.
- Apply five conflict resolution approaches using a character-based framework to guide strategy selection.
- Recognize ten roadblocks that prevent win-win resolutions and identify strategies for addressing each one.
- Use the PEACE model to move a conflict from initial identification through agreement and follow-up.
- Draft a conflict statement that is neutral, specific, and focused on resolution rather than blame.
- Apply communication and questioning skills that support information flow and preserve the relationship during a difficult conversation.
- Discuss the role of cultural differences in shaping how conflict is experienced and expressed.
- Identify the conditions that make mediation or arbitration the appropriate next step.
Workshop Modules
Why the Waters Get Rough: Understanding Workplace Conflict
The day opens with a scored self-assessment across five dimensions: understanding conflict dynamics, conflict resolution strategies, communication and mediation skills, emotional intelligence and ethics, and planning and follow-up. Participants will use their scores to identify where the day’s work will have the most value before the group examines what conflict actually costs when left unaddressed and what it can produce when handled well. The module then works through twenty root causes of workplace conflict, the organizational effects of unresolved disagreement, and the positive outcomes that well-managed conflict consistently produces. Three case studies set in a technology startup, a customer service department, and a sales organization bring the dynamics to life before the group establishes a shared working definition of conflict and a shared commitment to engaging it rather than avoiding it.
Charting a Resolution Path: Outcomes, Approaches, and Roadblocks
With a clear picture of where conflict comes from, the session turns to where it can go. This module presents four distinct conflict resolution outcomes and examines when each is appropriate and when each produces damage. Five conflict resolution approaches follow, each associated with a character symbol that makes the orientation of each approach specific and memorable. The group will examine when each approach is useful, what it risks when overused, and what conditions make it the right choice. Ten roadblocks that reliably prevent win-win outcomes are then examined alongside specific strategies for addressing each one. Vignettes drawn from realistic organizational situations give participants the opportunity to select outcomes and approaches before applying them to situations from their own experience.
Taking the Helm: The PEACE Model in Practice
The PEACE model is the practical center of day one. It provides a five-phase structure for moving a conflict from initial identification through agreement and follow-up, with detailed guidance for each phase and specific attention to what goes wrong when any phase is shortcut. The module examines how to draft a conflict statement that is neutral, specific, and resolution-focused rather than blame-oriented, and introduces the questioning and decision-making structures that prevent resolution conversations from collapsing into positional bargaining. Participants will apply the full model to a realistic conflict scenario and practice the phase that most resolution attempts skip: the follow-up that determines whether the outcome actually holds.
Communication Under Pressure: Tools for Productive Dialogue
A framework is only as effective as the communication that delivers it. This module addresses the listening, questioning, and responding skills that keep a difficult conversation productive when emotions are elevated and the temptation to react rather than respond is strongest. The group will examine what effective listening requires as an active discipline, practice questioning techniques that surface interests without threatening positions, and work through the three-step empathetic response structure that acknowledges what was heard before moving toward resolution. Three case studies give participants the opportunity to practice the skills before the session ends.
Different Shores: Cultural Dimensions and External Help
Culture shapes how people experience conflict, what they believe is appropriate to say aloud, how directly they express disagreement, and what resolution looks like to them. This module examines the cultural dimensions most likely to affect conflict dynamics in diverse teams and develops practical strategies for surfacing and bridging those differences rather than attributing them to personality or bad faith. The session closes by examining the conditions that make internal resolution unlikely or counterproductive and distinguishing between mediation, where a neutral party facilitates a voluntary agreement, and arbitration, where a neutral party makes a binding decision. Participants will leave with a clear picture of when each is appropriate and what it means to handle even a difficult outcome with professionalism and grace.
Day Two: Conflict Management
Session Objectives
At this session’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Explain the distinction between conflict resolution and conflict management and identify which applies to a given situation.
- Apply the ALIGN framework to address repeated behavior after a prior conversation has not produced change.
- Use the FORGE framework to manage an ongoing conflict that is not going to resolve, with specific tools for each of the five elements.
- Set clear limits and maintain professionalism during prolonged disagreements without allowing the conflict to damage performance or reputation.
- Identify the organizational conditions that produce persistent conflict and apply proactive strategies for reducing them.
- Demonstrate conflict management skills through extended case study application.
- Leave with a personal action plan tied to specific behavioral commitments for the situations they are currently navigating.
Workshop Modules
When Resolution Is Off the Table: The Conflict Management Mindset
Day two opens by establishing the distinction that the first day’s frameworks do not address. Resolution assumes both parties are willing and able to reach an agreement. Conflict management begins where that assumption fails. This module examines the conditions that make resolution unlikely or premature — entrenched positions, significant power imbalances, repeated patterns that have already been addressed, or dynamics that will not change regardless of effort — and establishes that managing a conflict well is a distinct and learnable skill set rather than a failure to resolve it. The group will examine their own experience with situations that required management rather than resolution and discuss what the absence of a management framework typically costs.
Authority and Accountability: The ALIGN Framework
When a manager has addressed a behavior and the behavior has continued, the conversation that follows is different from the first one. It acknowledges prior history, establishes consequences, and removes ambiguity about what is expected and what will happen if the pattern continues. The ALIGN framework gives managers a structured approach to that conversation: one that is firm without being punitive, clear without being adversarial, and designed to produce a path forward rather than simply document a problem. Participants will apply the framework to a set of realistic management scenarios and practice the specific language that makes each step effective rather than formulaic.
Stuck but Standing: The FORGE Framework
Not every conflict involves a direct report, and not everyone in a difficult situation has formal authority over the other person. FORGE is a BTW framework for the professional who has done everything right and is still stuck — with a difficult colleague, an intractable peer, a boss who is not going to change, or a dynamic that the organization is not going to address. The framework addresses what a person actually does in that situation: how to frame the reality accurately without catastrophizing or minimizing, how to protect performance and reputation when the relationship is difficult, how to reduce exposure without creating visible avoidance, where to find support that produces perspective rather than just agreement, and how to make the exit-or-endurance decision consciously rather than drifting. Each element of the framework includes specific, practical tools. Participants will apply FORGE to a current or recent situation and leave with a clear plan for the element that requires the most immediate attention.
Maintaining Professionalism: Limits, Behavior, and Trust
Ongoing conflict creates pressure to behave in ways that damage the person experiencing it as much as the person causing it. This module examines what maintaining professionalism actually requires in practice when a situation is difficult and is not improving: how to establish and communicate limits without escalating the conflict, how to keep behavior above reproach when the other person’s is not, how to avoid the drift into reactive behavior that undermines credibility, and how to build and protect trust with the people who matter most to professional standing even when one relationship is compromised. The group will work through realistic scenarios involving boundary erosion, reputational risk, and the temptation to recruit allies, and develop specific responses to each.
Putting It Together: Extended Case Study Application
This module applies both days of content to a set of complex, multi-layered organizational scenarios that require participants to diagnose the situation, choose between resolution and management, select the right framework, apply it under realistic conditions, and anticipate what happens next. Teams will work through the cases and present their approaches for group discussion and critique. The exercise surfaces the judgment calls that no framework can make automatically and builds the habit of choosing deliberately rather than reacting to whatever the situation presents.
Moving Forward: Action Planning and Commitment
The program closes with a structured action planning exercise. Each participant will identify the one situation in their current professional life that most needs a conflict resolution approach, the one that most needs a conflict management approach, and the one behavioral change that would produce the highest return if sustained. Plans are written, specific, and grounded in the actual situations participants are navigating rather than generic intentions. The group will share one commitment each before the session ends, creating a moment of mutual accountability that extends the work beyond the room.
Target Audience
This workshop is designed for groups that want to:
- Build comprehensive skills for both resolving conflict and managing it when resolution is not immediately available.
- Give managers and individual contributors a complete toolkit for the full range of conflict situations they actually encounter.
- Move from reactive conflict behavior to deliberate strategy before, during, and after a difficult conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who should attend this two-day workshop?
This course works well for professionals at any level who encounter workplace conflict regularly and want a structured approach for both resolving it and managing it when resolution is not the immediate option. It is equally useful for managers who need the accountability tools on day two and for individual contributors who need the survival and coexistence tools. Teams that attend together benefit from a shared language and a common framework for the situations they will face after the program ends.
How does this course differ from BTW’s one-day conflict resolution course?
The one-day course covers the PEACE model, root causes, conflict outcomes and approaches, cultural dimensions, and mediation in depth. This two-day program includes all of that content on day one and adds a full second day covering conflict management: the ALIGN framework for managers addressing repeated behavior, the FORGE framework for anyone stuck in a situation that is not going to resolve, and the practical tools for maintaining professionalism, setting limits, and making the exit-or-endurance decision consciously. The two-day format is the appropriate choice when the group needs the complete picture rather than the resolution skills alone.
Is day two only relevant for managers?
No. The ALIGN framework is specifically for people with management authority. The FORGE framework and the professionalism module apply to anyone in a difficult ongoing situation regardless of title. Individual contributors who are stuck with a difficult peer, an unresponsive colleague, or a dynamic the organization is not addressing will find the day-two content directly applicable.
What are ALIGN and FORGE?
ALIGN is a BTW framework for managers addressing repeated behavior after a prior conversation has not produced change. It provides a structured approach to the accountability conversation that follows an initial discussion. FORGE is a BTW framework for professionals managing an ongoing conflict that is not going to resolve. It addresses the five specific moves available to someone who is stuck: framing the reality accurately, operating at full professional capacity, reducing unnecessary exposure, getting support outside the relationship, and making a conscious decision about exit or endurance.
How much of the two days involves practice versus instruction?
Practice runs throughout both days. The self-assessment, case study application, PEACE model scenario work, ALIGN role practice, FORGE personal application, and extended case study module all require active engagement rather than passive reception. The program is built around application, and participants leave having used every framework at least once before they encounter it in their actual work.
Can this course be customized for our organization?
Yes. Before the session, we gather information about the conflict situations most relevant to your group, the authority structures in which they operate, and the specific dynamics they are currently navigating. We adjust the case studies, vignettes, and emphasis on day two accordingly. Organizations managing significant cross-functional tension may go deeper on the ALIGN module. Those dealing primarily with peer-level friction or difficult ongoing relationships may spend more time on FORGE and the professionalism tools.