Soft Skills
Handling Conflict Respectfully
Understand why conflict happens, stay calm, handle difficult conversations well and know when to involve your supervisor or HR.
About this course
Wherever people work together, there will be disagreements: about shifts, workloads, mistakes, noise, respect and much more. Conflict itself is not the problem. Handled badly, it leads to shouting, sulking, gossip, resignations and sometimes disciplinary action. Handled well, it clears the air, solves problems and makes working relationships stronger.
This course teaches you what causes conflict at work, how people tend to respond to it, how to stay calm when you are angry or under attack, how to listen and understand the other side, how to prepare for and hold a difficult conversation, and how to find solutions that work for both sides. It also explains clearly when a conflict is too serious to handle alone, and how to involve your supervisor, HR or a formal process such as a grievance procedure.
The course is fully online and self-paced. Each lesson has a short activity in your workbook. You finish with a practical task and a final assessment, and you receive a MetaCo Certificate of Completion that you can add to your CV.
Course content
Module 1: Module 1: Introduction
- 1.1 Welcome and how this course works
Module 2: Module 2: Understanding Conflict
- 2.1 What causes conflict at work
- 2.2 How people respond to conflict
Module 3: Module 3: Staying Calm and Listening
- 3.1 Staying calm in the heat of the moment
- 3.2 Listening to understand the other side
Module 4: Module 4: Difficult Conversations
- 4.1 Preparing for a difficult conversation
- 4.2 Holding the conversation and agreeing a way forward
Module 5: Module 5: When to Involve Others
- 5.1 When to involve your supervisor or HR
- 5.2 Grievances, discipline and your rights
Module 6: Module 6: Putting It into Practice
- 6.1 Bringing it together and your practical task