Corporate Conflict Resolution Training in Denver, Colorado
Effective Corporate Conflict Resolution Training in Denver, Colorado
Could your corporate team benefit from Conflict Resolution Training in Denver, Colorado? The number one request we receive is to help teams communicate more effectively. Effectively dealing with conflict in the workplace can be tricky. We can help your team learn to navigate conflict more quickly and effectively, which leads to higher productivity, greater trust and accountability.
Where do you suppose we learn to deal with conflict? If you guessed family, you are correct. Our first modeling of how our parents and other family members dealt with or did not deal with conflict. This sets the stage for how we handle conflict in ALL of our relationships – including business relationships.
Whether we like it or not, all of that history and patterning is happening below the surface – at work. We tend to either replicate how our families handled conflict, or do our best to do it differently. Mostly there is not a lot of guidance or training in how to productively move through differences at work.
The key to understanding and moving through conflict is to understand that ALL conflict is the result of unmet needs. The beauty in this is that all human beings, when you dig down deep enough, have the SAME needs! Brilliant! When we can see this, there is a chance to see eye to eye, to get the others’ perspective, and to find a solution to our challenge based in respect and understanding.
Think about a resent conflict, disagreement, or irritation that happened, preferably in the workplace. Got one? Great. Now, think about what your underlying need was. Let’s look at an example:
Example: Susan and Karen, her supervisor have had tension in their relationship ongoingly. Susan easily gets her feelings hurt when given constructive feedback and Karen likes to talk things out when there are challenges. Last week, Susan had a difficult interaction with a client, who ended up asking for a new account manager because he didn’t feel like his requests were being met. Karen gave Susan feedback that she needed to be more proactive in solving clent concerns and do whatever was needed to ensure that the client was taken care of. Karen ended up feeling hurt and that her side of what happened did not get taken into consideration.
When we look at the underlying needs we can guess that Susan had a need to be heard and understood while Karen may have had a need for efficiency and competency. In general, Susan’s needs are more relational (approval, harmony) while Karen’s needs are more task oriented (directness, integrity). When the two people can have conversations about their underlying needs – it is easier to focus on the issues rather than the personalities, and find a solution that can meet both person’s needs.
Our conflict management training gives you a new language for how to do that. It bends your mind to think quite differently than normal – but when you can see how much of your communication is in the areas of misinterpretation, judgement and evaluation, you can see how it is easy to mistakenly escalate a conflict rather than communicate in a way that resolves the conflict.
See if you can start thinking about people’s underlying needs when they are complaining about a challenge or when a conflict occurs. It is much easier to stop yourself from reacting or thinking about what YOU are going to say next when you are focused on what someone else might be needing.
So, did you realize what your need was in your last conflict?
Here are some common needs that don’t get met in the workplace.
- Being heard
- Contribution
- Respect
- Trust
- Emotional Safety
- Recognition
- Acknowledgement
- Efficiency
- Competency
- Honesty
Do this practice of listening for underlying needs for just a day and it will change the way you think about the nature of conflict – as well as helping you listen more effectively!
This is just one aspect of managing and resolving conflict that we cover in our day-long Conflict Resolution Training in Denver, Colorado. Contact us for a free needs assessment to get your team moving in a better direction towards resolving interpersonal conflict.
Start 2014 off on a good note – call us for Quarterly Training, Leadership Retreats and more.
To your growth and development!
Jeannie Gunter, MA
Founder and President, Transformative Training
303 653 3097
Jeannie works with a wide variety of clients to help them increase their team effectiveness and leadership capacity in their teams. She has worked both nationally and internationally as an organizational consultant, facilitator, speaker and wilderness guide.
With a strong background in group dynamics, over the past 20 years Jeannie has guided hundreds of teams in a wide variety of organizations to successful outcomes in team, personal and professional development.
