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Conflict Resolution

Fundamentals of conflict resolution

Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Beginner content levelBeginner

Turning disagreements into powerful tools for product development

Conflict and resolution is key to building better products—however, too few teams embrace it. Most teams and organizations shy away from conflict, seeing it as unproductive when the opposite can be the case.

Join expert Joshua Mauldin to see conflict for what it can be: a healthy back-and-forth that enables you to build the most successful product possible. Build a product and stronger team by making the most out of any conflict. But before you can embrace conflict as part of your process, you have to establish clear boundaries and guardrails. Over two hours, you’ll learn how to get comfortable embracing healthy conflict by establishing psychological safety for everyone to process feedback that may seem adversarial; discover how to make people feel welcome and heard, regardless of who they are or how they identify; and understand the differences between healthy conflict and harassment and bullying. .

What you’ll learn and how you can apply it

By the end of this live online course, you’ll understand:

  • How critical it is to embrace conflict—for you, your team, and your product
  • The basic principles of psychological safety and healthy conversations
  • A step-by-step path through conflicts and tips for navigating it

And you’ll be able to:

  • Be prepared to handle any kind of conflict
  • Apply principles of psychological safety and effective conversation

This live event is for you because...

This course is for you because…

  • You’re someone who avoids conflict or hasn’t found a good way to handle it.
  • You work with people who build digital products.
  • You want to become a master at navigating sticky situations.

Prerequisites

Recommended preparation:

  • Write down one situation in which you had a conflict that didn’t go the way you wanted it to
  • Ask yourself what three things would make it easier to navigate your next tough conversation to reference in a group discussion
  • Decide what your conflict resolution superpower would be if you had one

Recommended follow-up:

Schedule

The time frames are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing.

Introduction (5 minutes)

  • Lecture: Joshua’s conflict story; framework overview; why this is critical to your success
  • Group discussion: One thing you want to learn; your comfort level with conflict; one thing you find painful about tough conversations

Preparing for the conversation (30 minutes)

  • Lecture: The time is to have a tough conversation; how strong and accurate your feelings are; Hanlon’s razor and the Prime Directive; facts and observations; cranky conclusions; goals to keep the conversation focused
  • Group discussion: Separate facts from stories
  • Q&A

Having and managing the conversation (30 minutes)

  • Lecture: The structure of effective conversations; making it psychologically safe; the right questions; the techniques to show you’re listening
  • Group discussion: What are the best types of questions you’ve asked to get someone to open up?
  • Q&A

Break (5 minutes)

Responding when it goes wrong (40 minutes)

  • Lecture: The safety check; contrasting statements to refocus the discussion; establishing mutual purpose; exiting an unproductive conversation; navigating specific scenarios
  • Hands-on exercise: Read a scenario; complete a poll on how to best respond to the situation
  • Q&A

Wrap-up and Q&A (10 minutes)

Your Instructor

  • Joshua Mauldin

    Joshua Mauldin is a product designer at Pivotal Labs and lives in Los Angeles. He got his start in design by creating album packages for bands when he was a teenager. Joshua can be found online at joshuamauldin.com. He speaks on conflict resolution and has written for Smashing Magazine, O'Reilly, and many others. He loves approaching design with as much curiosity and humanity as he can muster. Also, he likes to make glitch art and pet dogs.