Difficult Conversations, Conflict Management and Better Communication
Course Information
- Date
-
- Tuesday, March 4, 2025,
9:00 AM till 5:00 PM- Wednesday, March 5, 2025,
9:00 AM till 5:00 PM - Tuesday, March 4, 2025,
- Registration Opens
- January 15, 2025, 9:00 AM
- Registration Deadline
- February 4, 2025, 12:00 PM
- Course Fees
- This course is free of charge and for doctoral candidates and postdocs of the University of Basel only (min. 6, max. 12 participants).
- Trainer
-
Carl Emerson
- Organized by
-
Graduate Center
Transferable Skills
grace@unibas.ch
GRACE Homepage
Aims
This interactive two days’ workshop gives PhD candidates and postdocs a detailed insight into how to handle difficult conversations, what conflict is, the stages of conflict, how to objectively view a situation, how to manage conflict situations and how to communicate better in order to obtain a positive outcome with the aim of acquiring the knowledge, skills and attitude to be able to prevent future events becoming conflict situations. “Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.” — Max Lucade
Many of us can be familiar with those awkward and challenging communications at work or anywhere, difficult conversations can be challenging, conflict happens and is an unavoidable part of life. The key to your success will be how you respond in these conversations and what you do to resolve conflict. It is important to note that conflict management starts with self-management and the more you understand yourself and your reactions, the better able you will be to choose the most appropriate method to resolve the conflict. This workshop contains a mixture of theory and practice so that you will be able to apply these new skills straight away.
Content
• What is a difficult conversation?
• The importance of speaking up
• How can we know a conversation could be challenging?
• Background to Conflict Situations
• Conflict as positive as well as negative
• Avoiders and Seekers
• The effects of conflict
• The signs of conflict
• Conflict escalation
• Styles and methods for conflict resolution
• Managing conflict – practical strategies
• Behaviours
• An introduction to mediation and negotiation
• Conflict and gender
• Transactional Analysis
• Introduction to Non Violent Communication
• Plan effectively for difficult communication situations
• Listening and question techniques
• When to walk away
• Prevention
• How to repair relationships and build trust
• Reflection and discussion
• Action Plan
Methods
Theoretical introduction
• Practical/open questions
• Working on examples, practical exercises in groups
• Feedback from the trainer/the group
• Create an Action Plan
Target Group
All Doctoral Candidates & Postdocs
About the Trainer
Carl Emerson has worked with people at all levels, including c-suite, VPs, managers, directors and multi-skilled teams across different geographies and cultures. He has delivered training courses in Egypt, Brazil, Mexico, China, The Philippines, Singapore amongst others and lived and worked in Belgium, the UK and now Switzerland.
Originally a Chemist, most of Carl’s experience has been gained from the pharmaceutical sectors where he specialised in repairing and building relationships and creating productive cross-organisation teams, but he also has experience working in retail and further education.
Carl uses coaching proficiency, story-telling, psychology appreciation, Neuro Linguistic Programming as well as knowledge and experience of training and development techniques in each interaction. He is passionate about helping people step into greater confidence and competance and has a unique blend of coaching personal insights to facilitate the unlocking of his client’s potential.
Workload
Course attendance 16 h, preliminary work 1 h, follow up & home-work dependent on action plans
Feature
Once registration is open, applications will be collected for 24 hours and course places allocated by lot. All registrations received after the initial 24h period will be put on a waiting list and assigned on a first come, first served basis.
Course places/places on the waiting list will be confirmed by e-mail. Course registrations can only be canceled before the registration period ends (send an e-mail to grace@unibas.ch). Full course attendance is mandatory. Participants who fail to attend a course without prior notification or withdraw after the registration deadline are subject to a fee of CHF 30. In addition, participants who cancel their course registration at a later point in time, are absent without an excuse or do not attend the entire course will, for reasons of fairness, not be considered for course registration in the following semester and will be removed from other courses offered in the same semester. Please find the detailed regulations on the Transferable Skills Homepage.