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 About the Trainer
• Gayatri Tribhuvan- Executive Director
• Polyglot- speaks 11 languages including
German, French and Spanish
• 8 years of corporate experience and
training experience, international
experience of Germany and UK
• Handles complete training curriculum,
management and delivery
• Completely up to date with the latest
happenings in the linguistics and social
skills area
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Contents
• Introduction of participants and facilitator.
• Establishing the objectives of this workshop.
• Introduction to Conflict
• Main challenges of leadership in Conflict Management
• Sources of Conflict
• Types of Conflict
• Desirability of Conflict
• Undesirability of Conflict
• Stages of Conflict Management
• Styles of Conflict Management
• Johari Window
• Team work and positive demeanour
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Exercise-1: Conflict Management

• Brainstorm with the class, eliciting from participants their
understanding of the term “Conflict”.
• Capture their inputs and steer the class to the definition of
Conflict –

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Exercise-1: Conflict Management

• “Conflict is the interactive process manifested due to
incompatibility of interests, disagreement over goals, or
dissonance of understanding / personal chemistry, between
social entities”.
• Conflict is “an expressed struggle, between at least two
interdependent parties, who perceive incompatible goals, scarce
resources, and, interference from others in achieving their goals”
(Wilmot and Hocker, 1998)
• Conflicts exist whenever incompatible activities occur.

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Exercise-2 : Conflict Factors

• Brainstorm with the class to enumerate the various

conflict causing factors that they know of, and need to be
managed in eliciting Goal-oriented behavior at work.
• Capture the list on the board.
• Break the class into groups and get them to sort this list
• Into Good and Bad categories, and,
• Then sort each category in the descending order of
importance / influence at work, using the Paired
Comparison Tool.

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Conflict Causing Factors-1

Misunderstandings
 
Conflict can arise from misunderstandings
about:
 
•The nature, aims and objectives of a job
•Differing expectations about how things
should be done
•Work conditions and wages
•The different responsibilities of
management and employees
•Differences in values, beliefs, needs, or
priorities

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Poor communication
 
Communication relies on clear and complete messages being sent as well as being received. Problems can be
reduced by paying attention to how well you send messages and how well you receive them. Both managers and
workers are responsible for ensuring that these issues are considered. There are many ways to improve
information flow and communication.
Here are some suggestions:
 
•Keep message books/day books
•Keep policy books which include all policies as decided at meetings
•Hold regular staff/management meetings for passing on information
•Have frequent employee meetings
•Ensure correspondence is available for everyone to see
•Distribute minutes of all meetings promptly and widely
•Ensure there is clarity about what the objectives are and about what decisions have been made
•Ensure decisions are implemented
•Give everyone time to talk at meetings
•Try to spend twice as much time
listening as you spend talking.
 

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Lack of planning often means an organization moves from one

crisis to the next. This sense of disorganization and lack of direction
can be stressful and can create many problems including
misunderstandings. The time spent in planning will be recouped
many times over in the more efficient use of workers' time, and in
real and long-term benefits to clients.

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Inappropriate selection of staff can result in ill feeling

and conflict. Feelings of ill will may be increased by
dismissing staff members.

When people become frustrated or stressed they are

more irritable and more likely to create conflicts than at
other times. It is important to recognize the signs of
stress in people's work situations in order to prevent
burnout. Try to help people identify the causes of work
related stress, and take steps to change these factors or,
better still, try to anticipate possible causes of stress
before they arise.

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Benefits and Need of Conflict

• Opens our eyes to new ideas
• Opportunity to verbalize needs
• Imparts flexibility
• Teaches us to listen
• Teaches us behavior patterns
• Leads to Solutions
• Communication skills improve
• Helps us to set limits
• Practice Emotional control
• Allows us to differenitate ourselves

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Types of Conflict

• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Intergroup
• Intragroup

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Desirability of Conflict

• Conflict can be desirable.

• Conflict helps eliminate or reduce the likelihood of
groupthink.
• A moderate level of conflict across tasks within a group
resulted in increased group performance while conflict
among personalities resulted in lower group performance
(Peterson and Behfar, 2003)

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Undesirability of Conflict

• Certain conflicts can be hard to control once they have

begun.
– The trend is toward escalation and polarization.
– When conflict escalates to the point of being out of
control, it almost always yields negative results.

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Exercise-3: Conflict Management

• Brainstorm with the class, eliciting from participants their
experiences of Positive and Negative Conflicts.
• Capture their inputs and steer the class to a common
understanding of Conflict Management.

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Exercise-3: Conflict Management

• Conflict management is the process of analyzing and
understanding the underlying cause of conflict and then
eliminating, or, reducing the extent of, the causes of affective
conflict, while leveraging the positive effects of substantive
conflict.
• Conflict management provides the opportunity to improve
situations and strengthen relationships, through –
–proactive conflict management
–collaborative conflict management

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 Stages of Conflict
FIVE STAGES OF CONFLICT:
 
Latent Stage: Participants not yet aware of
conflict
Perceived Stage: Participants aware a conflict
exists
Felt Stage: Stress and anxiety
Manifest: Conflict is open and can be observed
Aftermath: Outcome of conflict, resolution or
dissolution

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Conflict Management styles

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 Conflict Management styles
Accommodating – This is when you cooperate to a high-degree, and it may be at your own expense,
and actually work against your own goals, objectives, and desired outcomes.  This approach is effective
when the other party is the expert or has a better solution.  It can also be effective for preserving future
relations with the other party.
Avoiding –  This is when you simply avoid the issue.  You aren’t helping the other party reach their
goals, and you aren’t assertively pursuing your own.  This works when the issue is trivial or when you
have no chance of winning.   It can also be effective when the issue would be very costly.  It’s also very
effective when the atmosphere is emotionally charged and you need to create some space. Sometimes
issues will resolve themselves, but “hope is not a strategy”, and, in general, avoiding is not a good long
term strategy.
Collaborating – This is where you partner or pair up with the other party to achieve both of your goals. 
This is how you break free of the “win-lose” paradigm and seek the “win-win.”  This can be effective for
complex scenarios where you need to find a novel solution.  This can also mean re-framing the
challenge to create a bigger space and room for everybody’s ideas.  The downside is that it requires a
high-degree of trust and reaching a consensus can require a lot of time and effort to get everybody on
board and to synthesize all the ideas.
Competing – This is the “win-lose” approach.  You act in a very assertive way to achieve your goals,
without seeking to cooperate with the other party, and it may be at the expense of the other party.    This
approach may be appropriate for emergencies when time is of the essence, or when you need quick,
decisive action, and people are aware of and support the approach.
Compromising – This is the “lose-lose” scenario where neither party really achieves what they want. 
This requires a moderate level of assertiveness and cooperation.  It may be appropriate for scenarios
where you need a temporary solution, or where both sides have equally important goals.   The trap is to
fall into compromising as an easy way out, when collaborating would produce a better solution.

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Conflict Management Strategies

Unilateral negotiation strategies include –

• The trusting collaboration strategy.
• The open subordination strategy.
• The firm competition strategy.
• The active avoidance strategy.

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Conflict Management Strategies

Interactive negotiation strategies include –

• Trusting collaboration
• Principled negotiation
• Firm competition
• Soft competition
• Open subordination
• Focused subordination
• Active avoidance
• Passive avoidance
• Responsive avoidance

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Conflict Management Strategies

Borisoff and Victor (1998) argue that the best strategy

for conflict management is negotiation for win-win when
the desired outcomes involve high stakes.

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Conflict Management Strategies

Fisher, Ury, and Patton (1991) outline four principles
that compose principled negotiation –
• Separate the people from the problem.
• Focus on interests, not positions.
• Invent options for mutual gain.
• Seek objective criteria.

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Conflict Management Strategies

Walker and Harris (1995) offer the following practical tips for
implementing the win-win style –
1. Avoid feelings or perceptions that imply the other person
is wrong or needs to change.
2. Communicate a desire to work together to explore a
problem or seek a solution.
3. Exhibit behavior that is spontaneous and destruction-
free.
4. Identify with another team member’s problems, share
feelings, and accept the team member’s reaction.
5. Treat other team members with respect and trust.
6. Investigate issues rather than taking sides on them.

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Exercise-4 : Conflict Management at
Work
• Get the class to work on a case-study ( preferably
taken from their work environment ), wherein they
learn to apply their knowledge of Conflict
Management gleaned so far, to arrive at a solution.
• Get each group to enact their solution in a “Fish Bowl
Role Play”. The rest of the class watch and offer their
comments and questions at the end of each role
play.

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Dealing with Competitive Style

• Work hard to recognize the personality style of those who come across
as dominant people.
• Try to see life from the dominant person’s perspective.
• Do not allow your opinion to be de-valued by a dominant person.
• Calmly speak your opinion to a dominant person.
• Don’t back down because of fear or anxiety.
• Be firm with respect.
• Be straightforward when communicating to a dominant person.
• Develop thick skin and demand respect from strong personalities.
• Never give someone the authority to “Make you mad or upset.” No one
has the power to make you do anything.

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Dealing with Avoiding Style

• Do not sound demanding or confrontational

• Try to use more “I” sentences than “You” sentences
• Make them comfortable, by involving them in indirect
debates/discussions
• While expecting them to participate, try and be ready with a few
solutions of your own, and in the process move them into the
collaborating style

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Useful information
Clip 1: Use of Johari window in
communication

Clip 2: Johari Window at work

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Johari Window Game

Arena- words that both you and Blind Spot- words that your
your partner have in common partner has but you dont

Façade/Hidden- Words that only Unknown- words that both your

you have but your partner partner and you don’t have
doesn’t have

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Able accepting adaptable bold

brave calm caring cheerful
clever complex confident dependable
dignified energetic extroverted
friendly giving happy helpful
idealistic independent ingenious
intelligent introverted kind
knowledgeable logical loving mature modest nervous
observant organized
patient powerful proud quiet
reflective relaxed religious responsive
searching self-assertive self-conscious sensible sentimental
shy silly smart spontaneous sympathetic tense trustworthy
warm wise witty

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Negotiation Skills
• Generally improves when the Collaboration
Style of Conflict management is used
• Important to have a fixed desired outcome in
prior
• Time is a key factor- The right moment
• High Risk Factor
• A good idea of the stakes involved
• Is it worth it? Clarity in desired outcome
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Dealing with Blue Collared

Associates
• Lose the Superiority
• Language- is important!
• Grass-root level understanding
• An effort to make them understand of higher
level functions
• Regular training and knowledge sharing
• Active involvement

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Object Oriented Discussion from a

conflict
• Be ready with data
• Jot down notes
• Keep action items ready immediately
• Do not delay delegation
• Objective answers instead of subjective
answers
• Avoid blaming, at any cost
• Factual behaviour goes a long way
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Diffusing Emotionally Charged

Situations
 PEARLS:
•Partnership:
– “I really want to work on this with you.”
– “I bet we can figure this out together.”
•Empathy:
– “I can feel your enthusiasm as you talk.”
– “I can hear your concern.”
•Acknowledgement:
– “You clearly put a lot of work into this.”
– “You invested in this, and it shows.”
•Respect:
– “I’ve always appreciated your creativity.”
– “There’s no doubt you know a lot about this.”
•Legitimation:
– “This would be hard for anyone.”
– “Who wouldn’t be worried about something like this?”
•Support:
– “I’d like to help you with this.”
– “I want to see you succeed.”

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Convincing Employees regarding

Policies
• Never Assume
• Re-telling is key
• Play a broken record
• Easily accessible
• Written language should connect with the
audience
• Reward compliance

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Change Management
• Change is the only constant
• Be flexible (to a point)
• Make the expectations clear upfront, by constant
questioning
• Try to get as much information in writing as possible
• In case of undesired outcomes, be quick to report it,
and be ready with mitigation plans
• Be Mentally alert

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Expectation Handling
• Be flexible to a point- know oneself
• Examine the expectations closely and take time to think before
committing
• If time pressure exists, make it clear you are accepting it under time
pressure and desired outcome may vary
• Extrapolate on past experiences
• Make it extremely clear on acceptance, what you have exactly expected
and what shall be delivered. This should be captured in writing.
• Clear communication, especially with respect to time
• Avoid vague replies, when expectation has already been accepted
• Avoid Assumptions
• Always realize- Saying versus doing/dealing are 2 different things

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Some General Tips

• Stay calm
• Listen to Understand
• Accentuate the Positive
• Future Focus shift
• Ask correct questions (Indirect Questions)
• Pick your battles
• Create Options
• Be creative and Confident
• Celebrate Agreements
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 Building Team Trust
• Lead by example
• Communicate Openly
• Know each other personally
• Avoid blaming
• Discourage groupism
• Discuss trust issues

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Conclusions

• Individuals should understand their own personal triggers to

better deal with conflict situations in the workplace.
• Group members should think about other group members
early on to identify privately those individuals and behaviors
that may push their buttons.
• Conflict may have some desirable consequences.
• Out of control conflict could be destructive.
• Conflict-producing behaviors are more likely from those high
in aggression, dominance, and the need for autonomy.
• The prime factor in a conflict situation is the style of
leadership and the resulting group norms regarding conflict.

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