“In our complex and uncertain world, conflict is inevitable. Understanding conflict as an opportunity for learning, rather than a barrier to progress, is a shift in thinking that must occur if communities are to move forward.”
- Shana Ratner (1997)
Emerging Issues in Learning Communities, pp 6-7. Yellow Wood
Associates, Inc. St. Albans, VT
Some observers say that the incidence of conflict in communities, civic groups, and within and between families is increasing as the diversity of people facing problems expands and as communities face more complex problems affecting more people.
As people gather to make decisions together, different opinions about the best course of action are common and generally contribute toward more informed, effective decisions. Sometime divisive conflicts arise and parties may become antagonized and entrenched.
Conflicts that are managed in constructive ways can yield benefits to participants and their larger communities through creative solutions and enhanced relationships. This requires skill in learning from and negotiating with those who do not share the same position.
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Build a key career competency:
skill in conflict management
Our CES Conflict Management Team has been intensively trained by conflict specialists at UW-Milwaukee.
We now provide four workshops designed to help you progress in your comfort, knowledge, and skill. These workshops offer an opportunity to gain awareness of conflict management concepts in aninteractive format and to gain skills to be better able to handle conflict.
Workshops A & B build knowledge and skill for effectively communicating and negotiating when one is an active, interested, party in a conflict. Competence in these skills provides a key foundation for effectively performing roles as an educator in helping other parties manage and resolve conflicts. Skill in educator roles is addressed in Workshops C & D. Added benefits: access to conflict teaching lesson plans on conflict team’s D2L site, ability to borrow conflict materials (videos, books, etc.) housed in Coop Media Collection, and network with other Extension colleagues engaged in conflict programming.
Conflict Management Team Members include: Alicia Acken-Cosgrove, Tom Caldwallader, Mindy Habecker, Jeff Hoffman, Paula Huff, Mary Kluz, Joan LeFebvre, Alan Linnebur, Kathy Metzenbauer, Mary Novak, and Boyd Rossing. UW-Milwaukee Conflict Specialists Trainers and Coaches: Nancy Burrell, Rob Ricigliano |
Communication and Styles in Conflict (Workshop A)
This introduction to conflict management focuses on communication skills that will help you approach conflict in a positive manner. You will:
- Explore how assumptions can affect the outcome in conflicts
- Gain awareness of conflict styles
- Consider the positive and negatives of particular conflict styles for various situations
- Gain appreciation for the perspectives of others, and help them understand your perspectives
- Understand how to prepare for a “difficult conversation”
- Appreciate and adjust for the role of emotions in conflict
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Negotiation in Conflict (Workshop B)
This workshop focuses on negotiation skills that will help you achieve agreements with other parties that satisfy multiple interests. You will:
- Discover how negotiating an agreement can become a goal for parties in a conflict
- Introduce communication and relationship building skills-the foundations for effective negotiation
- See how to move from defending positions to mutual appreciation of the interests of others
- Gain skill in discovering options, applying criteria and confirming agreements
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Diagnosing Conflict for Effective Extension Roles (Workshop C)
This workshop focuses on analyzing conflicts, identifying interested parties, examining their relationships and selecting among varied roles Extension can play to help parties manage or resolve the conflict. Principles apply to conflicts ranging from simpler two-party to complex multi-party conflicts. You will:
- Analyze a conflict situation
- Perform diagnostic and coaching interviews
- Select appropriate Extension roles (e.g. diagnosis, information/instruction, process design, facilitation, etc.) for varied situations
- Apply conflict analysis in your own programming
- Description of Workshop C training
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Designing and Facilitating Effective Conflict Management (Workshop D)
This workshop focuses on designing processes, convening groups, facilitating communication, and managing problem-solving activities that productively resolve a conflict. You will:
- Learn about and create processes for identifying and convening conflicting parties
- Learn about and create meeting designs for conflict management and resolution
- Review and apply conflict concepts to your conflict education practice
- Practice skills in facilitating/managing conflict processes (augmenting skills used for other activities e.g. strategic planning, group decision making, etc.)
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