Conflict Resolution and Workplace Mediation Skills for Managers – Paris, 25–29 Oct 2027

Programme overview

Introduction:

Disputes between colleagues rarely stay private: they slow decisions, split teams, raise absence and resignations, and too often end in a formal grievance that an earlier conversation could have settled. Managers and HR partners are expected to step in, yet few have a method for doing so. This Core Concept course builds practical conflict resolution and workplace mediation skills: reading the stage a dispute has reached, calming heated exchanges, running a structured mediation between two colleagues and agreeing team ground rules that stop the same conflict returning. Participants assemble a Workplace Mediation Casebook.

Course Objectives:

• Diagnose the sources of a workplace dispute and the escalation stage it has reached using Glasl's nine-stage model
• Choose an intervention that fits each party's conflict style and the stage of the dispute
• De-escalate heated conversations by acknowledging emotion, reframing accusations and restoring a working tone
• Run a structured mediation between two colleagues from first contact and separate meetings to a written agreement and follow-up
• Handle informal grievances at the early-resolution stage with impartiality, confidentiality and clear records
• Produce a Workplace Mediation Casebook with intake, agreement and team charter templates

Target Audience:

• Line managers responsible for resolving disputes within their own teams
• Team leaders accountable for day-to-day working relationships and team climate
• HR business partners advising managers on interpersonal disputes and early complaints
• Staff appointed as internal mediators or first points of contact for workplace disputes
• Project and department heads managing friction over shared work and resources

Course Outline:

Day 1: Workplace Conflict Sources and Escalation

• Conflict Source Map: Task, Relationship, Process and Status Disputes
• Glasl Nine-Stage Escalation Model: Win-Win, Win-Lose and Lose-Lose Phases
• Cost of Conflict Worksheet: Time, Absence, Turnover and Productivity
• Early Warning Signs Checklist for Team Disputes
• Team Conflict Health Check and Current-State Review

Day 2: Conflict Styles and Resolution Models

• Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Modes: Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding and Accommodating
• Positions, Interests and Needs Iceberg Model
• Interest-Based Problem Solving Sequence: Issues, Interests, Options and Criteria
• Intervention Choice Matrix Matched to Escalation Stage
• Mediation Principles: Voluntary Participation, Impartiality and Confidentiality

Day 3: De-escalation and the Structured Mediation Process

• Emotion Regulation Techniques for the Manager in a Heated Exchange
• De-escalation Language: Acknowledging, Reframing and Summarising
• Mediation Intake Form and Suitability Screening
• Separate Meetings with Each Party: Question Plan and Listening Record
• Joint Session Structure: Opening Statement, Uninterrupted Time and Agenda Setting

Day 4: Grievances, Difficult Cases and Relationship Repair

• Informal Grievance Handling: Early Resolution Route and Record Keeping
• Power Imbalance, Hidden Agendas and Impasse Handling in Mediation
• Referral Criteria: When a Case Moves to a Formal Procedure
• Mediation Agreement Drafting: Specific, Balanced and Reviewable Terms
• Relationship Repair Plan: Apology, Trust Rebuilding and Check-In Schedule

Day 5: Mediation Role-Plays and the Casebook

• Role-Play: Mediating a Workload Dispute Between Two Peers
• Role-Play: Mediating a Clash Between a Team Leader and a Senior Specialist
• Team Charter Workshop: Working Agreements and Conflict Protocol
• Follow-Up Review Meeting Script and Agreement Monitoring Log
• Workplace Mediation Casebook Assembly and Peer Feedback

Skills You Will Gain:

• Conflict Diagnosis
• Escalation Stage Assessment
• Conflict Style Adaptation
• De-escalation Technique
• Mediation Facilitation
• Impartial Questioning
• Agreement Drafting
• Team Charter Design

Why Attend This Course:

• Return with a Workplace Mediation Casebook of intake, agreement and team charter templates ready for the next dispute
• Rehearse a full mediation between two colleagues and receive feedback on neutrality and pacing
• Step into a heated exchange with words that lower the temperature instead of raising it
• Compare how disputes are handled with managers and HR partners from other sectors and countries

Conclusion:

Conflict between colleagues costs less to resolve early than to process formally. This course moves from the sources and escalation stages of workplace conflict, through conflict styles and interest-based problem solving, to de-escalation and a structured mediation process, and then to grievances handled at the early-resolution stage, difficult cases and relationship repair. The final day rehearses complete mediations in role-play and produces a Workplace Mediation Casebook with templates for intake, the mediation agreement and a team charter.