Course: How to Handle Emotional Conflicts at Work
Start of Course Outline Managing Emotional Conflict at Work A 6 Week Blended Programme for Emerging Leaders and Frontline Supervisors
Lead in line that's not a warm up sentence: Emotional conflict is less about the argument and more about the story each tells themselves about that argument.
Why it matters
Emotional conflict eats away at morale, degrades productivity and siphons good people out the door without a sound. Companies that see emotional intelligence and hands on communication as "soft" extras pay for it with failed targets, unnecessary churn. We design this course to provide you with pragmatic, measurable tools so that teams can stop re running the same battles and finally create truly resilient, collaborative workplaces.
Intended Participants and Level (randomised):
- Emerging leaders/front managers in medium to large size Australian organisations applicable for:
- This programme is designed for HR professionals supporting these populations
- Typically responsible requirement line manager roles up to around band 3/manager levels.
Preferred length, format and delivery mode (randomised)
- 6 week blend programme:
- Pre work: Self paced e learning module (estimated at around 60 minutes).
- Live virtual two hour sessions: 3 × facilitated workshops from online hubs (ie. Zoom/MS Teams).
- Face to face consolidation workshop: Half day in duration (3.5 hours), local, around the country.
- Post programme coaching: Two follow up one on one phone or video calls estimated to take either side of 30 minutes.
Delivery method
Hybrid, blend online with face to face sessions
Locations available
Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth Canberra Geelong Parramatta, but can deliver easily in any of these main centres
Cost and practical considerations (eg)
- Fee: $495 incl. GST per person (standard public cohort pricing); discounts for in house cohorts according to headcount.
- Minimum cohort size for face to face delivery: 8 participants; maximum recommended: 18 per cohort for best role play and facilitator attention.
- Platform: Standard corporate webinar platform + LMS for pre work and micro learning.
Programme overview & rationale
This programme pulls together three guiding insights: self reflection, emotional regulation and relational exchange. It's deliberately practical. Theory is short; we are well practised at using language though structured reflection as well as testing conflict rules which work in actual meetings and not just an interesting tidy hypothetical classroom exercise.
Two points of view (deliberately a little adversarial)
- There are reasons that strict HR policies are necessary, of course, but most practice the art of making simple people problems difficult. Great managers can and should work out most emotional misalignments long before they lead to HR cases.
- Role playing is humiliating to a lot of people, and exactly why it works. If you want new behaviour, you have to rehearse it under low level pressure.
Learning objectives (behavioural and measurable)
Participants will be able to:
By end of programme, participants should be able to do the following:
- Identify and name their top three emotional triggers in an interaction with someone at work.
- Utilise a five step de escalation script consistently during normal conflicts.
- Facilitate a psychologically safe conversation resulting in a documented, mutually agreed upon action plan provided in at least 80% of practice cases tracked within the criterion measure.
- Reduce repeat interpersonal grievances for their team by between 20 to 30% over six months (metric based target; post programme tested via HR reports).
- Demonstrate improved active listening measured by increased scores on an existing, internal Leadership Team Survey's from communication questions before after participation.
Pre programme diagnostics and preparation
- A pre programme online survey (10 minutes): including an assessment of the issue under consideration, stress levels related to it; a short self assessment questionnaire of emotional intelligence; how frequently this occurs for them and where it comes from at work.
- Baseline manager report: HR provided brief metrics designed to compare against post programme data on whichever uses are most relevant/feasible/appropriate for the participants' departments in which they are working (for evaluation).
- Pre work: 60 minute e module covering fundamental concepts needed as bedrock material created during option appraisal; including Emotional intelligence, active listening, basic de escalation framework. It will contain short reflections and a 2 minute video: all showing participants talking about real team disagreements recently (to be used in workshop anonymised examples).
Module by module breakdown (lesson objectives, activities, materials)
Module 1 Foundations (Virtual; 2 hours)
Objective: Root everyone in a common language and create psychological safety.
Structure:
- 15 min: Welcome, expectations and a quick pulse check via anonymous poll
- 20 min: Mini theory, What emotional conflict is, why it escalates, common workplace sources (resourcing, values, miscommunication)
- 25 min: Self awareness lab, guided micro reflection exercise to identify personal triggers
- 40 min: Practical toolset introduction, the 5 step de escalation script and standing up the "Observation Feeling Need Request" (O FNR) communication frame
- 20 min: Breakout practice, two short role play rounds with rotation and peer feedback
Materials:
- Participant manual: trigger mapping tools, de escalation script cards.
Outcomes: Each participant will take home their personal one page trigger map and example of the de escalation script being filled out (worked example).
Week 2 Regulate and Respond (Virtual, 2 hours)
Purpose: To learn emotion regulation strategies and cognitive reappraisal.
Content:
- 20 minutes: Mindfulness micro practice & Breathing techniques for meetings (practical, 3 minute techniques)
- 30 minutes: Cognitive appraisal workshop, reframing using anonymised workplace scenarios in a series of exercises.
- 40 minutes: Emotional labelling and naming, practising the language that slows escalation down & validates, followed by experiential learning, Labelling what you heard.
- 25 minutes: Paired roleplay, one escalated scenario per pair with observer checklist.
Materials:
- Brief mindfulness guided audio; handout with cognitive reappraisal prompts (to be used in classroom setting).
Results:
- Attendees perform one live regulation strategy and say how they had use it in a meeting.
Week 3 COMMUNICATION Essentials (Virtual, 2hrs)
Objective: Enhance active listening, non violent communication and feedback skills.
Structure:
- 15 minutes: Short review and lived examples from the week of that principle in action.
- 30 minutes: Drill on active listening, paraphrase, reflect, give clarification.
- 35 minutes: Practice a hard skill (nonviolent communication), complete with scripts for common workplace triggers (missed deadlines, perceived slights).
- 30 minutes: Facilitated peer coaching, each person gives structured feedback using the "Situation/Impact/Request" model to another participant.
Materials:
- Scripts, reflecting listening check list and sample feed back templates.
Outcomes:
- Both players will record a short feedback chat and receive coach comments.
Week 4 Collaborative Problem Solving (Half day face to face, 3.5 hours)
Objective: Shift from opposition to cooperation, developing shared solutions and agreements.
Agenda:
- 30 minutes: Warm up and group norms for the day.
- 45 min: Empathy mapping exercise to learn bout stakeholder perspectives.
- 60 min: Facilitated negotiation practice, using scenarios with constrained resources (time, budget, recognition).
- 45min: Agreement design, convert conversations into clear action plans and accountability check points.
- 20min Group reflection and commitments
Materials:
- Agreement templates, role play briefs, negotiation cheat sheets.
Results:
- Teams make at least one negotiated agreement in practice with measurable behaviours and dates.
Week 5 Mediation, Policy and Scaling (Virtual, 2h)
Objective: When to deprioritise, how to mediate and using policy as scaffold not sledgehammer
Structure:
- 30 minutes: Decision tree, when to manage versus involve HR or independent mediation
- 40 minutes: Mediation simulation with discrete neutral facilitator role
- 30 minutes: Policy clinic on how to draft straightforward human centred conflict resolution policies and communication processes.
Materials:
- Incident triage checklist, sample policy language, mediation role cards.
Outcomes:
- Attendees walk away with a template incident triage decision guide and with an upgraded policy template.
Week 6 Embed and Measure (Virtual, 2 hours + Coaching)
Objective: How to operationalise change, follow up plans, manager coaching and sustainment.
Structure:
- 40 min: Measurement workshop, create a simple measurement plan for each person's new team (KPIs, pulse surveys, timelines).
- 40 min: Planning implementation, people commit to a 90 action plan with milestones.
- 30min: Close and peer commitments, micro learning reinforcement schedule shared.
Follow up:
- Two 30 minute private coaching calls at 30 and 90 days (sustainment, troubleshooting, measurement)
Supplies:
- Measurement guides, 90 day plan tools and microlearning calendars.
Results:
- Each leader has their own tailored 90 day plan and a dashboard of 3 to 5 measures to monitor.
Learning methods and pedagogy
- Active practice (role play, simulations), minimum 50% of live time will involve active practice.
- Microlearning and spaced repetition, a brief audio or video reinforcement between sessions.
- Reflective journalling, five minute weekly reflection prompts to deepen self awareness.
- Peer coaching pairs, participants are paired with each other to provide reciprocal support during the 6 weeks programme.
- Real world application, participants bring an actual workplace conflict to work on through the programme
The programme facilitator
Katri is ECMC advanced accredited coach by European Mentoring & Coaching Council with two decades + experience leading training programmes that stick, transforming wisdom into action, for clients from TedX, Stockholm School of Economics Executive Education Programme to Namaste Publishing N.America
Assessment and measurement
Cognitive and clinical pre/post measures
- Pre Programme Survey, Post programme survey assessing: Self rated confidence managing emotional conflict (Likert scale) Frequency of interpersonal incidents (participant log) Team climate indicators (psychological safety items)
- 360º feedback Retrospective baseline and three months.
Behavioural assessment
- Role play rubric with objective indicators: use of de escalation script, active listening and solutions focused.
Organisational metrics (Recommended):
- HR Reports: number of interpersonal complaints, staff turnover away and absenteeism rates, number of mediation escalations, tracked as 6 months pre post
- eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) change in participating teams.
Success measures (example)
- There is a 20 to 30% decrease in repetitive complaints in the six months following attending this programme for all teams involved.
- The active listening rubric score for each participant raises by 70%.
- In 80% of cases, managers will be able to directly link team improvement with improved collaboration.
Materials and resources supplied to participants
- Participant workbook and quick reference cards
- Pre work e module and short guided mindfulness audio
- Templates: agreement templates, feedback scripts, incident triage checklist, policy language example
- Access to an LMS with 10 short micro learning bites (between 2 to 6 minutes each) post programme
- Optional manager toolkit to support ongoing practice.
Facilitator profile and delivery notes
- Facilitator(s): Trainers who are accredited organisational psychologists, mediation practitioners and preferably have practical management experience, ideally from within the region where delivered.
- The recommended ratio is 1 facilitator per 12 participants for high interactivity groups a co facilitator may be required for groups exceeding 16.
- For face to face delivery the room should set up with breakouts (using chairs), flipcharts, comfy seating etc.
- Who to look out for: We favour people who have experience working in a real corporate environment, they need to have "been there" when things hit the fan and leaders go head to head. Theory not coupled to skin in the game is hardly convincing.
Sustaining change, post programme reinforcement
- Microlearning schedule (weekly for 8 weeks) with prompts as refresher clips (3 mins long).
- Manager check ins: guided 15 minute forced conversations for first six weeks to keep skills front of mind.
- Optional quarterly booster sessions (90 minutes) for leaders bring new dilemmas and practise.
- Peer of the month spotlight, rotates a team member whom we put in spotlight showcasing conflict resolution stories (#showingoff in business!)
Risks, common complaints and mitigations
Risk: Attendees dislike role play or think you are being "too soft"
- Mitigation: Real but safe simulations pulled from their actual work. Begin with low stakes cases and increase difficulty.
Risk: Organisations want the culture to change immediately.
- Mitigation: Manage expectations; sell the programme as one part of a wider cultural drive. Finally, provide opportunities to measure windows of success and incremental wins.
Objection: "This is going to be sooo time consuming."
- ACTION: Partial blended format that reduces in person time and retains the intensity of practice. Show the cost of inaction, lost productivity has a price.
Risk: Line managers do not deliver on action plans.
- Mitigation: We incorporate manager accountability from the measurement plan and provide two coaching touch points for helping to embed commitments.
What successes looks like, tangible measures
- Less recurring conflict; resolving faster
- Team members reporting higher psychological safety scores
- Managers reporting they have more problem solving discussions than avoidance (HR Director)
- HR observe a decrease in the number of formal grievances for teams participating in the programme being recorded, rather than team issues being escalated to this stage.
- Qualitative wins: calmer meetings, clearer expectations, more straight talking but respectful feedback exchanges.
Example participant journey (short vignette)
A frontline manager in Brisbane does preread, attends virtual sessions, does role plays and then uses the empathy mapping tool in a heated resource allocation meeting. She applies the de escalation script and together they co design a rotas compromise and depart with it in writing. Three months later, HR is seeing fewer repeat complaints from that team, and the supervisor feels less stressed.
Timeline for evaluation and reporting
- Immediately: Post programme participant satisfaction and learning check.
- 30 days: Short pulse check with participant/manager
- 90 days: Long term follow up evaluation including data on the following (360 feedback, HR metric comparison v baseline)
- Report: Formatted Report containing recommendations for scaling across the division.
Customisation and optional extras
- Deep dive half day tailored at senior leader level (specific cases; decisions).
- Industry specific simulations: customer services, healthcare, banking operations or retail management.
- Materials are available in other languages, upon request.