Conflict resolution training:
How to handle workplace disputes effectively

When conflict arises, and it’s handled poorly, or not at all, it can cause damage across the board. Not only to your company culture, but to your reputation and performance too.

Voicing opinions, concerns, and responding appropriately are all essential parts of promoting a healthy and productive workplace. Without constant fear of conflict or backlash.

With the right tools, conflict can be mitigated and resolved effectively, or prevented entirely.

What is conflict resolution training?

Conflict resolution training is learning how to identify conflict in the workplace and providing the right tools to effectively handle and minimize disputes or prevent them before they begin.

Conflict is part of our everyday lives. It can arise in any organization, regardless of your company’s size or industry. What matters is how it’s handled and resolved.

Without training, everyone has their own way of dealing with conflict. More often than not, this results in different outcomes and resolutions.

However, when you implement company training in the workplace to manage conflict in a non-aggressive and empathetic way, your company’s culture will reap the benefits.

The five key objectives of conflict resolution training

Personality clashes, opposing views, and personal bias can cause disputes in any organization. Conflict resolution training puts an immediate pause on this. But to do it right, you need to identify conflict management training key objectives.

From active listening to noticing non-verbal cues, mastering effective communication is key to conflict management, especially for those working in a customer service environment.

Picking out what’s relevant in conversations and engaging in the correct way will show that you’re listening, and may even prevent conflict from rising to the surface.

Sometimes, showing empathy and that you’re actively listening is just as important during disputes than vocalizing your own opinion.

You’re allowing others in the room to feel respected and included, whilst promoting a healthy workplace. Conflict resolution training for employees can lend a helping hand in this.

Teamwork and collaboration are big parts of resolving conflict.

Conflict resolution training for employees allows your workforce to come together and build strong relationships. You’re giving them a platform and a space to share ideas, whilst improving morale and overcoming challenges together.

Solving problems and making decisions is a key part of teamwork.

From collaborating with others to active listening, minimize conflict and strengthen problem-solving abilities together through conflict resolution training.

Remaining level-headed can be challenging, particularly if you’re in a difficult environment or handling a tough situation.

However, managing emotions and maintaining professionalism reduces the chance of conflict.

Customer de-escalation training is just one example of a safe place to practice productive communication. You want your teams to feel empowered to make a judgement call in the moment, and this is a way you can support them to do so.

How Attensi can support your conflict resolution training needs

Conflict isn’t always conducive to a productive and enjoyable work environment. Our Attensi conflict resolution training is just the thing to prepare your teams for those difficult conversations. We deliver:

1.
Employee conflict resolution training – enhanced through gamification, simulations and high end VR, AR and 3D interactive experiences
2.
Conflict resolution training delivered across devices, which are suitable for remote training and ideal for large or international organizations
3.
Easy integration within existing training LMS

How conflict resolution training will benefit your organization

Lots of components and objectives can sustain impactful conflict resolution skills, something all companies need. Poor conflict management feeds into a toxic workplace. Which will no doubt lead to other repercussions. High staff turnover, increased costs and poor productivity to name a few.

We all have personal biases and preferred ways of problem solving that can impact those around us, and the team dynamic too.

Improving workplace relationships with conflict management training makes space for awareness. Individuals become self-aware of these biases, and encourage proactivity and engagement at work, without dispute, even if they disagree.

Your team can move past their own opinions and views, whilst still working towards your organization’s goals.

Improvements to efficiency and productivity will not only empower your employees, but positively impact your company.

Conflict management training for employees ultimately reduces disputes, allows healthy and productive conversation, whilst making room for what’s important; the performance of your organization.

Your team can now problem-solve efficiently, without allowing obstacles to distract and influence the job at hand. They take disputes in their stride, and are seen as an opportunity to improve.

High staff turnover and absenteeism is costly and detrimental to your organization. If your workplace continues as a place of negativity, you’re sending a message to your team. And not a good one.

With conflict training in the workplace, you’re letting your employees know that you care about company culture and them as individuals. They need security and they need stability. Conflict management training can provide both. You don’t want to risk losing your top talent.

Most of us spend approximately a third of our lives at work, which is over 90,000 hours over a lifetime. That’s a long time. And even longer if those days are filled with toxicity and anxiety.

A conflict resolution training program can combat this, and your workforce can become strong, respectful and cohesive.

In order to work at their best, your employees need a safe and supportive work environment.

Despite compliance policies, there are still risks that problems can escalate into legal issues. When this happens, lots of people become caught in the cross in fire, resulting in costly lawsuits,

It goes without saying that the cost of developing strong and effective conflict resolution skills outweighs the cost of legal issues.

The five key components of conflict resolution training

Where should you start? There’s a lot of information out there when it comes to conflict management training. Here we’re sharing the five key components you should try and stick to.

You might find that there’s a pattern, or something specific that keeps causing confrontation.

Once you have an understanding of this, you’re one step closer to developing those essential conflict management skills and resolution of disputes before they can even arise.

Everyone deals with conflict differently. Some avoid it entirely, or some become defensive, argumentative and vocal. When reactions to conflict clash, it can lead to stress. However, with the right conflict management skills in place, this stress can be avoidable.

This will require some looking inward from your teams. They’ll need to recognize which personal conflict style they identify with.

It can be hard to empathize and actively listen to others in the heat of the moment. Staying calm, listening and being understanding is a lot to juggle.

Implementing real-life workplace scenarios using simulations in conflict resolution mediation training is a highly useful tool. It gives teams the chance to experience the look and feel of certain situations, without the fear of making mistakes.

Opportunities to feedback, work together and peer mentor contribute to effective communication.

In a neutral, stress-free environment, get to know how your employees communicate, and support them to do so effectively.

Companies across all industries will benefit from the basics of de-escalation training, as lots of workplace scenarios can quickly turn into something bigger than necessary.

If your organization deals in customer service, it’s almost certain your team has met with challenging behavior on more than one occasion. Learning how to cope or deal with a tough customer in-person is a vital skill. De-escalation training in customer service  can be tailored to match specific real-life scenarios, taking your team’s conflict management to the next level.

How to deliver conflict resolution training successfully

When it comes to launching and building successful conflict resolution training, there are a few things to think about:

With gamification, you’re turning boring, overdone conflict management training exercises into something engaging. And something fun too. Training instantly becomes attractive to employees.

When learning becomes attractive, your teams will engage, learn faster and retain information for longer.

Every organization is different, with different needs and people. Which is why you should personalize your conflict management training to meet the diversity of your workplace as much as possible.

This isn’t just for employees, but for those in leadership positions too. Conflict resolution training for managers can be immensely beneficial. For example, you’re able to get an insight into how your workforce manages conflict, communicates and how they’re progressing.

A highly engaged workforce can lead to a huge growth in productivity, as much as 202%.

Employee engagement is what keeps your employees coming back for more. While they keep training, improving and developing their conflict resolution skills, your company’s performance goes from strength to strength.

Self-assessment prompts self-reflection.

From people’s confrontation style to how they respond to certain triggers, interactive assessments play a beneficial role in exposing where someone’s strongest skills lie.

Mobile learners complete training courses 45% faster than their desktop counterparts.

The demand for learning on the go is ever-increasing. Times are changing, constantly modernizing, so your organization should be too.

No matter where your employees work, they should be able to access high quality conflict management training wherever they are.

Where does conflict resolution training fit into your organization?

Conflict resolution training is a vital component of learning for both those in public facing industries, and for your internal teams’ relationships, too.

De-escalation training for customer service teams

A key aspect of any large-scale organization is managing how your customer service team handles conflict and implements de-escalation skills. It protects your workforce on all levels, from wellbeing to compliance and company policy.

Conflict training in the workplace prevents unnecessary anger or upset, and avoids situations getting out of hand.

Conflict resolution for the healthcare employees

The healthcare sector can be a stressful and emotional environment when the stakes are so high.

Learning how to remain compassionate is key. Conflict resolution training can assist healthcare professionals in remaining calm whilst resolving and reducing disputes.

De-escalation techniques for public organizations

Public sector workers deal with a wide range of situations where conflict can arise. It’s essential they can resolve disputes to ensure efficiency and safely.

Learning triggers, redirecting negative behavior and listening are just a few of the skills that workers can learn through conflict resolution training.

Simulation and gamification enhances conflict resolution training

One of the great things about gamified learning is its competitive nature. Employees can try out different ways of managing conflict in a neutral environment, whilst learning on the go.

Immersive learning experience

Interactive and gamified simulation based training creates an immersive training experience. The accuracy and true-to-life nature of gamified training ensures conflict resolution training is as close to the real thing, but in a safe environment, where you can keep practicing without repercussions.

Advanced technology, such as VR, AR and 3D simulations take learning one step further. You’re creating real-life interactions that provide accurate insights into the behavior of your staff.

Higher interaction, adoption & success rate

Your team’s training analytics will prove the success rate of gamified-training.

Learning how they’re interacting and engaging will allow you to keep progressing and changing your conflict management training, to best fit their needs, making your training relevant and the best it can be.

Bite-size delivery: quick adoption and progress

Bite-sized learning is all about cutting down training and information into smaller, easily digestible chunks.

When applying this method to conflict resolution training, it might look like implementing training modules that last between 2-10 minutes, and ones that can be reviewed again and again.

Research shows that this can reduce the forgetting-curve drastically. And contributes to faster progress.

Easy integration with existing conflict
resolution training LMS

Attensi’s training solutions can be seamlessly integrated within any existing conflict resolution training LMS. Whether you’re looking for analytics, systems for tracking or reporting, Attensi can gather all your invaluable learning tools in one place.

Through investing in smooth, accessible and engaging de-escalation training, you’re also investing in your teams. It’s a priority. It’s how your employees will keep up with continuous learning. And stick around in the long-term.

Conflict resolution training is key to expanding your organization’s potential. You can contribute to your employees’ growth with our gamified-simulation training.

Are you ready to level up your training?