Conflict Coaching

As a secondary resource to our September webinar on Conflict Coaching we are providing this overview to cover some of the aspects discussed in the session by Alison and Sarah. For more information on our conflict coaching services please call 08000 489235 or email [email protected]

What is Conflict Coaching?

Conflict Coaching can be used as a tool to empower individuals to improve the way they interact and relate to colleagues and to understand, manage and resolve interpersonal workplace conflicts. Individuals work 1-1 with a trained coach in a future-oriented process personalised to each individuals’s specific conflict management goals.

Principles of Conflict Coaching

Conflict coaching is used to assist individuals in making their own decisions and understanding their conflict behaviours. It is a goal-orientated process, tailored to the individual’s requirements and offers opportunities to strengthen relationships and accept the inevitability of conflict. During the process, the goal is for the coachee to also gain an understanding of the concept of mutuality; that being an understanding of their own contribution to the conflict, in order for them to make positive, transformative changes to their conflict behaviours.

Where Does Conflict Coaching fit in?

Conflict coaching can be used:

• As stand-alone resolution and skills development
• Pre-mediation, to prepare parties for mediation
• As part of pre-mediation meetings
• Post mediation to help people explore their conflict behaviours
• Post grievance
• To encourage/empower informal resolution

Conflict coaching is an empowering process that can be used to inform individuals ahead of the mediation process, helping them decide if that option  is the right choice. It can be particularly helpful in situations where people are anxious or unsure about the mediation process. Post mediation there is sometimes a need for people to explore their reactions to conflict situations and what they might need to be doing differently in their conflict behaviour to sustain changes post mediation. If individuals are unwilling to go into mediation we can use conflict coaching as a stand-alone tool to help people develop their conflict resolution skills. Post grievance we are increasingly using conflict coaching where there have been recommendations around how individuals could have dealt with situations differently.

Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP)

Resolution at Work are accredited in delivering the CDP assessment tool as form of conflict coaching and leadership development.

CDP is an instrument that measures conflict behaviours aiming to increase self-awareness. The tool focuses on behaviours as opposed to conflict styles and enables individuals and teams to understand how they respond to conflict, what escalates conflict, and how they can manage it more effectively.

CPD comparatively and meaningfully assesses behaviors on two assessment scales: Constructive / Destructive.

• Constructive behaviors reduce and deescalate conflict
• Destructive behaviors are more likely to escalate issues

This assessment tool   provides the the individual an opportunity to better understand conflict behaviours and reflect on their own and how this relates to others and  how the behaviours fit within teams. The process builds an understanding of differences in styles and behaviours and can be used to help  teams  to communicate effectively, understand and reduce destructive behaviours, avoid pushing people’s buttons and manage conflict constructively.

CINERGY Model

Developed by Chartered Mediator and coach Cinnie Nobel and not yet particularly well known in the UK, this is a helpful model to use when individuals feel stuck in a conflict and can’t see a way out of it. CINERGY works by unpicking a conflict situation from different perspectives. This enables the individual concerned to make greater sense of it and to identify and explore what practical actions they may wish to take. The model is based on research and principles of conflict management informed by both psychology and neuroscience. The CINERGY Model goes into significant depth to explore what might lie behind a situation. The process is important as it allows space and time for the individual to gain clarity and enables learning and self-reflection. Once the conflict situation is better understood, the model then explores the options for resolution and considers the pros and cons of each so that the client can decide what action they will take. Finally, it can be used to help individuals prepare for and rehearse the next steps.

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