Harness Power of Conflict to Improve Your Organization, Your Team, and Yourself!
What's your take on conflict? Is it harmful and needs to be prevented? Does it have a positive aspect to it; and to be encouraged? Can you imagine relying on conflict to improve a team's performance? Join me to get you to know the Conflict, make friend with it and even co-lead your dreams! Are you personally aware of situations where you or your team members get into conflict? What shall you do about it? Shall all conflicts be treated the same? Are all conflicts resolvable? Are all of them needed to be? What benefits a team can have of being in conflict? What about the organization, conflict at the organization level, can it be helpful at all?
If you are interested about these or is in conflict about the answers to the above questions, please join me for a session on conflict and how to harvest it for the benefit of your team and your organization. In this interactive session, we will go over different types of conflict with you. You will experience a real conflict, and how you respond to it. Would you be compromising, accommodating, competing, collaborating or avoiding? You will then identify your default conflict handling mode. This self-awareness will help you in future conflicts to actively choose to use a conflict handling mode more suited for the situation on hand.
Outline/Structure of the Workshop
This is a talk with some interactions.
Opening - A quick introduction about myself, and the expectations from the session - 5 minutes
First part - Colorful Conflict - What is conflict? 20 minutes (5 min intro + 5 min group discussion + 10 min debrief)
I am going to ask the audience to pick a color that represents conflict for them. This is using the color cards I put on the table. Then, I ask them to have a round table conversation on why they chose that color and what it represents them. I then ask them to use an online tool to capture what conflict represents for them. At the debrief, I am pointing out that although we think conflict is what we define it, it has a different meaning for different people. We are even in conflict defining conflict. An important message to keep in mind when dealing with conflict.
Second Part - Conflict Handling Method - What is yours? 30 minutes (5 minutes exercise + 10 minutes debrief + 15 minutes education on different conflict-handling modes)
I am going to ask the audience to act a scene. In groups of two, one is going to be the boss and one is going to be the employee. The employee is asking for a vacation, and the boss is resisting it. After three minutes, I do a debrief on stances each person took, and how they were responding to the conflict. Then, I am going to show them the Thomas-Kliman model. We are going to discover 5 different conflict-handling modes, their advantages, and disadvantages. Also, the audience will find out their default conflict handling mode.
Third part - Put all these in perspective - How to use default handling mode? 20 minutes (2x10 minutes round)
Scene 1
I am going to ask the audience to act a scene. This time, I am going to ask to get into groups of three. One person would be the observer. The other two would be playing the scene. The role of the observer is to observe and identify each individual's conflict-handling mode. These are the points the observer is trying to achieve:
1- The observer at the end of the scene, will share what he/she observed and each person's conflict handling mode. This will raise awareness around each one's conflict-handling mode. َA quick debrief on the outcome of their handling mode is due.
2- The group is going to discuss what questions they would suggest for the next round if someone is going to play the role of the negotiator, depending on the first round.
Scene 2
I am going to present them with the second scene. The second scene is for the observer to observe and try to facilitate the conversion from a neutral perspective. It is also for the other two people in conflict to practice using different conflict-handling mode if they wish. I also introduce them to a technique called pause and rewind. This is a technique used for coaching. To pause the conversation, and then go back and change the path the conversation is taking. The goal of this session is:
1- To facilitate a conflict as a neutral observer, having input on how a conflict might break between the two people. Also, the observer had input from them on what could work for them, and what is most important. He/She has the knowledge of the default handling-mode of the two coming to this conversation.
Closing Points - 10 minutes
I am going to close debriefing the whole talk, summarizing with what we talked about. I am going to give the audience the handout on conflict-handling mode.
[There are 5 minutes left out in the schedule. I usually give myself 5 minutes buffer for any challenges that we might stumble upon. If everything goes smoothly, I am going to use this as QA]
Learning Outcome
In this presentation, you will learn:
*Conflict does not mean the same for all, and how to utilize it in your daily life
*Different types of conflict
*Different conflict-handling modes, and discover your default mode
*Conflict handling modes in detail, their best usages, and avoidance situations
Target Audience
Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, Leaders, Executives
Prerequisites for Attendees
N/A
Links
Shahin & Agile Games:
Shahin has facilitated two sessions at Agile Games 2018, which received phenomenal feedback. The one called "user stories by collaboration" has received all thumbs up, not even one side thumbs http://shahin.sheidaei.com/2018/04/user-stories-by-collaboration-agile.html. Shahin is an avid facilitator, and passionate to embed simulations and gaming into the education of new concepts.
About this session:
I have facilitated the session with many groups at different organizations. This presentation has evolved through many iterations based on feedback I received presenting it. This is the first time I am offering it to facilitate at a public conference.
About Shahin's presentation history:
Shahin is a regular speaker at lean and agile conferences. He has most recently presented at Agile 2018, Agile and Beyond, Agile Games 2018, Gatineau Ottawa Agile Tour 2017 and Agile DC 2017. He also presented at Tech Leaders of Toronto, Scotiabank, Agile Ontario, Agile Coach Camp and Agile Open Canada. Shahin’s talks have received great feedback and attracted many Agile enthusiasts.
About Shahin:
Shahin is the founder and principal coach at Elevate Change Inc. He is a passionate coach and facilitator. Shahin enjoys dealing with fresh challenges, learning new techniques, solving real problems, learning from outcomes, and constantly improving. He is eager to help organizations become a high performing one and achieve their utmost potential. Offering over 13 years of experience Shahin has strong expertise in applying agile and lean values & principles to organizational transformations and personal elevations. He has research & development experience, mid-size level engagement, as well as engagement with top names such as TD Bank, Scotiabank, TELUS, CBC, and SAP. He heavily believes in the value of communities. He is leading the Agile Lunch community in his hometown of Toronto and helps with others building them and connecting them.
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