6:00pm
Announcements, listserv idea proposed for communication outside of class
6:10pm
Guest Speaker, Eric Johnson, WA Ports Association
7:10pm
BREAK
7:25pm
Active Listening Workshop. Click here to view handout
8:05pm
Conflict Resolution and De-escalation Techniques lecture.
Be aware of your gut reaction to the terms "conflict" and "de-escalation." You may have positive, negative or neutral feelings tied to these concepts/experiences. With this personal perspective in mind, you will need to choose a path that works for you.
Regardless of if conflict occurs or de-escalation is needed in a situation with an individual, in a meeting, or within a role based scenario (customer, client); the following tips may be applied in varying degrees.
1) Be sure you know what your goals are for what you want/need to get out of the situation before going into it. These may be guided by your organization's mission statement, the task at hand, or policy. You may want to state these goals clearly at the onset of the conflict in order to ensure you have "expressed your intentions" and all parties are clear.
2) If possible, know your audience. Be aware of how others prefer to receive feedback or manage conflict.
3) Decide who you want to be at work. Are you willing to be a change agent? Are you willing/able to accept the potential results/consequences of conflict?
Strategies
1) Do not embarass others. Give people an "out" from the conversation or to responding in the moment if it is appropriate.
2) Rather than telling people there is a problem, you can pose it as a question: "Can you help me understand.........."
3) Adjust the tone and level of your voice.
4) Adjust your body language (turning, leaning, leading).
5) Broken record- if you know you cannot budge on a point, then just keep repeating the same response.
8:30pm
Time to start forming project groups
9:00pm
Seminar