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Conflict Resolution:
Advanced Strategies for Managers and Teams
Managing people means managing disagreement. Most managers learn it by trial and error, often after a situation has already escalated. This advanced course gives you a structured method for handling conflict at every stage. You'll learn to spot early warning signs, recognise your own default response under pressure, and run difficult conversations that end with clear, agreed actions. You'll also practise mediating between team members without taking sides, and learn where conflict ends and a formal grievance or bullying case begins.
By the end of this course you will be able to diagnose workplace conflict at an early stage, select an appropriate response based on the situation rather than your instinct, and lead structured conversations that resolve the issue and preserve the working relationship. This is not an introduction. It assumes you already manage people and have already tried the obvious things.
- Line managers, team leaders and supervisors with at least 12 months of people management experience
- HR and People partners who coach managers through conflict.
- Clinical and operational leads managing multidisciplinary teams.
- Anyone who has a conversation sitting on their to-do list that they keep moving to next week.
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Learning outcomes:
On completion you will be able to:
- Analyse a live conflict using a staged escalation model, and judge whether it can still be resolved informally.
- Identify your own default response under pressure across the five conflict-handling modes, and explain when that default works against you
- Distinguish stated positions from underlying interests in a dispute, and use that distinction to open options both parties can accept.
- Plan and deliver a structured difficult conversation using a four-stage preparation framework.
- Facilitate an informal mediation between two team members while maintaining neutrality and agreeing measurable commitments.
- Evaluate when conduct crosses from conflict into bullying, harassment or a grievance matter, and apply the correct escalation route.
- Design team practices that surface disagreement early, including ground rules, check-ins and follow-up reviews.
Course content:
Reading the conflict (45 minutes)
Sources
of workplace conflict and why they repeat. A nine-stage escalation model you
can map a real situation onto. Working out what the conflict is actually about,
which is rarely the thing being argued over. Case study: a handover dispute
between two shift leads.
Your
default under pressure (35 minutes)
Competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating. Self-assessment to find your habitual mode. Matching response to situation: when avoiding is the right call and when it costs you six months.
The conversation you've been avoiding (50 minutes)
A
four-stage preparation framework. Opening lines that don't trigger
defensiveness. Separating position from interest. Managing tears, anger and
silence. Agreeing specific commitments before anyone leaves the room. Includes
scripted examples and a downloadable preparation template.
Managing
as mediator (45 minutes)
Running
an informal three-way conversation. Setting ground rules. Staying neutral when
you privately think one person is wrong. Writing up the agreement. Knowing when
to hand over to formal mediation.
When it stops being a disagreement (40 minutes)
Thresholds for
bullying and harassment. Protected characteristics and discrimination risk.
What to record and how. Grievance procedure basics and your role in it. When to
involve HR immediately.
Building
a team that disagrees well (30 minutes)
Psychological
safety in practical terms. Team charters that get used. Scheduled friction
reviews. A 30-day action plan you complete before you finish the course.
