Read interview with Professor Robinson
Why hone your skills in Conflict Intervention? Dealing with interpersonal conflict at work can be one of the most challenging parts of being a leader. Often, as leaders, we don’t feel comfortable or know how to intervene skillfully to support team members to resolve their conflicts. In part, this is because interpersonal conflicts arouse emotions that may be uncomfortable to deal with. However, the best time to catch conflict is early, before it escalates to formal action. If disputants are too upset to resolve the issue constructively themselves, this is the time that skillful intervention can support team members to feel heard, humanize disputants to each other, uncover underlying interests, and support them come to their own solutions. And frequently, conflict can be transformed into stronger relationships, a more open team culture, better communication, greater psychological safety, and increased innovation. That’s where this course comes in. While other courses or in-house corporate training focus on dealing with your own conflicts, this course helps you as a leader step in and facilitate conversations to repair relationships among your team members.
Using skills and best practices that have proven successful in millions of interpersonal conflicts, you will learn to intervene more skillfully in conflicts across culture, functional expertise, gender, age, sexual orientation, and work style preferences, among others. This experiential course will provide you with the leadership and EQ skills, structure, and practice to support your team to resolve work-related conflicts, repair relationships, and feel heard. Through learning by doing, you will learn and hone managerial skills that should be part of every leader’s toolbox.
We will work in small groups of 3-4 people to apply EQ skills and techniques to real workplace conflicts by role-playing conflicts that commonly occur on diverse teams. As the course progresses, you will have the chance to bring (disguised) conflicts of your own to work on in class. Along with developing and polishing useful conflict resolution skills, you will also leave this course having gotten to know some very interesting people!
REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS COURSE:
• You need to show up in person (NO AI-notetakers in your place!!!) especially on Days 1, 3, and 4, to practice interpersonal skills in role plays. Days 1, 3 and 4 are the most critical days, and it is hard to catch up if you miss them. So ensure you are available for Days 1, 3, and 4. (If you cannot attend Days 1, 3, and 4, please do NOT apply for this course----each Triad is assigned a personal conflict coach, so it is EXTREMELY difficult to make up Days 1, 3, or 4.)
• Your camera must be ON, so your facilitator can see your emotions as you role play interpersonal disputes.
Course Date & Time
2025
9/20 - 11/15 Saturdays, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.(JST/Tokyo time)
2026
(1/10 - 3/7) Saturdays, 9:00 a.m.-13:00 p.m.(JST/Tokyo time)