Dealing With Conflict: Instrument

Most of us are less skilled at handling conflict than we should be. Although studies show that a negotiating behavior is usually the best response to a conflict situation, negotiation is a difficult endeavor-one that requires considerable skill and thought. The normal negotiating behavior, as typically practiced in business and social contexts, does not generally produce high levels of satisfaction for either participant. The Dealing with Conflict Instrument (DWCI) will help change this by encouraging conflicting parties to shift to a more collaborative style in order to find and pursue shared interests, creating a win/win outcome.

The Dealing with Conflict Instrument presents five conflict-handling styles. The five styles; accommodate, avoid, compromise, compete, and collaborate, encompass all the effective ways of dealing with conflict. By completing the Dealing with Conflict Instrument-Self, participants will learn about their own natural style tendencies, while the information gathered from the DWCI 360-Degree Feedback set will give them insight into how they are perceived by others when resolving conflicts. The combined results of these assessments indicate which styles of conflict resolution need the most improvement.

Participants will explore the characteristics of each conflict-handling style which will help them develop greater style flexibility. In order to decide which style is best in a given situation, they will learn to dissect situations, using Conflict Situation Analysis.

DWCI is a significant improvement over conventional conflict assessments. It shortens usage time, produces clearer and more user-friendly results, and includes helpful support material. DWCI is compatible with most existing training programs and is the easiest way to update assessment materials.

Alexander Hiam brings creativity skills to his work as a consultant, trainer, and facilitator for clients such as Kellogg, The Vermont Country Store, GMAC, and Spalding. He is a frequent speaker on the role of creativity in marketing, entrepreneurship, new product development, win-win negotiations, and leadership. He holds degrees from Harvard College and University of California, Berkeley and has run an independent consulting firm based in Amherst, MA for more than a decade. His other publications include The Portable Conference on Change Management, Flex Style Negotiating (both from HRD Press), The Portable MBA in Marketing (Wiley), Marketing for Dummies (IDG), and The Entrepreneur's Complete Sourcebook (Prentice Hall).