Dealing with Conflict; Negotiating Confidently: (Full-Day)
Class Overview: This full-day interactive program, Dealing with Conflict;Negotiation Confidently is divided into two sections.  In the first half, the focus is on conflict generally. This is important because all negotiating takes place in the context of differing goals, the related effects on important relationships, and the impact of our behavior.  Hence, in this section participants reflect on their experience with conflict at work or at home, and then proceed to learn a few key ideas about its causes, their personal style in relating to conflict, and then several practical ‘tools’ and concepts to help them deal more effectively with conflict in their professional and personal lives.  This section includes ideas from the best-selling book, Crucial Conversations (Patterson, et al. 2002), as well as ideas from the Thomas Kilman Conflict Management Inventory, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey, 1989), The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Lencioni, 2002), and Walton’s (1987) classic, Managing Conflict – Interpersonal Dialogue and Third Party Roles.

The second half of the program focuses on Negotiation. Participants are introduced to “interest based negotiation”, as defined by Fisher and Ury (1981) in their classic best-selling book, Getting to Yes.  The section begins with a quick reflection on experience with negotiation (e.g. buying a house, negotiating a starting salary, bargaining with a union, establishing a price with a vendor, negotiating a work deliverable, etc.), and then presents key ideas such as ‘separating the people from the problem’, ‘determining interests not positions’, ‘inventing options’, ‘using objective criteria’, ‘developing a BATNA’ (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), ‘dealing with resistance’ and ‘the power of a positive no’.  While Getting to Yes is the primary source for this section, additional ideas are also taken from Getting Together – Building Relationships as We Negotiate (Fisher & Brown, 1988), The Power of a Positive No (Ury, 2007) and various Harvard Business Review articles on negotiation.  This section includes several opportunities for skill practice, such as determining the ‘interests’ of the other party in a pre-set negotiation; determining strategies to ensure a ‘relationship’ is strengthened with ‘trust-building measures’ while also pursuing your own interests in the negotiation; and determining ways to measure the ‘success’ of the negotiation beyond merely financial. Finally, at the end, there is an opportunity in small groups to action-plan on a real negotiation or develop a group response to a sample case.

Class Objectives:
Upon completion of this half-day class, participants will be able to:

1. Understand briefly how conflict arises in the workplace and at home
2. Understand one’s own conflict style, as determined by the Thomas Kilman Conflict Style Inventory, and the related strengths and weaknesses of that style
3. Describe several practical ‘tools’ for dealing with conflict effectively
4. Describe the key components of Interest Based Negotiation and the related phases of conducting this type of negotiation
5. Understand several of the key issues that emerge in negotiations (e.g. temptation to ask for more than is expected, when to prioritize goal or relationship, the value of withholding information, dealing with strong emotions – either real or faked to influence the negotiation) and how to handle these issues professionally
6. Develop action plans so as to handle conflict effectively and conduct an “Interest Based Negotiation”