Conflict Resolution Specialist Course

Lesson 1 • Conflict Typology and Classification

Categorises conflict by scope, intensity, and domain to enable precise intervention selection. Directly informs strategy choices in later chapters.

Lesson 2 • Nature and Origins of Conflict

Examines why conflict emerges from unmet needs, competing interests, and perception gaps. Establishes the diagnostic lens used throughout the course.

Lesson 3 • Core Resolution Principles

Introduces neutrality, impartiality, voluntary participation, and confidentiality as foundational values. These principles govern every professional practice covered in the course.

Lesson 1 • Active Listening Techniques

Trains full-attention listening that captures content, emotion, and subtext simultaneously. Active listening is the primary data-gathering tool for all resolution roles.

Lesson 2 • Nonverbal and Paraverbal Communication

Analyses tone, pace, proxemics, and gesture as signals that reinforce or undermine verbal messages. Practitioners must manage their own nonverbal output while reading others.

Lesson 3 • Reframing and Language Precision

Teaches transforming positional statements into interest-based language and neutralising loaded terms. Reframing is the verbal lever that moves parties from blame to problem-solving.

Lesson 4 • Managing Difficult Conversations

Provides structures for entering high-stakes conversations without triggering defensiveness. Builds on all prior communication skills to handle emotionally charged exchanges.

Lesson 1 • Closing and Documenting Agreements

Covers agreement drafting, commitment testing, and implementation planning to ensure durability. A well-documented agreement prevents re-litigation of settled issues.

Lesson 2 • Positional vs. Interest-Based Negotiation

Contrasts distributive bargaining with principled negotiation to show when each is appropriate. Establishes the theoretical backbone for all negotiation practice in this course.

Lesson 3 • Recognising and Countering Tactics

Identifies common hardball tactics and provides principled counter-responses. Practitioners must protect parties from manipulation while keeping dialogue productive.

Lesson 4 • Preparation and BATNA Analysis

Guides systematic pre-negotiation research, goal-setting, and best-alternative analysis. Thorough preparation is the single strongest predictor of negotiation success.

Lesson 1 • Managing Anger and Hostility

Provides specific protocols for de-escalating angry outbursts and hostile exchanges in session. Builds on de-escalation theory from Chapter 1 with applied emotional tools.

Lesson 2 • Emotional Intelligence Core Competencies

Maps self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skill as the EI structure for practitioners. These competencies underlie every interpersonal technique in the course.

Lesson 3 • Regulating Emotions in High-Stakes Moments

Provides grounding, pacing, and cognitive reappraisal techniques for real-time emotional regulation. Practitioners must model calm to create psychological safety for parties.

Lesson 4 • Validating and Acknowledging Emotions

Teaches acknowledgment statements that honour party emotions without endorsing positions. Emotional validation reduces defensiveness and opens parties to problem-solving.

Lesson 1 • Caucus and Private Session Management

Explains when and how to use private sessions to break impasse without compromising neutrality. Caucus is a high-leverage tool requiring careful confidentiality management.

Lesson 2 • Mediation Models and Structures

Compares facilitative, evaluative, and transformative mediation models to clarify role boundaries. Model selection shapes every subsequent process decision.

Lesson 3 • Closing, Agreement, and Follow-Up

Guides agreement drafting, reality-testing durability, and post-mediation follow-up protocols. Durable agreements require clarity, specificity, and mutual ownership.

Lesson 4 • Intake, Screening, and Preparation

Covers pre-mediation interviews, suitability screening, and logistics setup. Proper intake prevents process failures and protects vulnerable parties.

Lesson 5 • Problem-Solving and Option Generation

Facilitates brainstorming, reality-testing, and option evaluation to move parties towards agreement. Builds directly on negotiation value-creation skills from Chapter 3.

Lesson 1 • Balancing Power in Process Design

Covers procedural adjustments, caucus use, and support person inclusion to level the playing field. Process design is the primary tool for equity without compromising neutrality.

Lesson 2 • Cultural and Identity Dimensions of Power

Examines how cultural background, gender, and social identity intersect with power in conflict. Practitioners must recognise identity-based dynamics to avoid reinforcing inequity.

Lesson 3 • Sources and Forms of Power

Analyses positional, relational, informational, and structural power as forces shaping conflict. Understanding power sources is prerequisite to balancing them.

Lesson 4 • Ethical Limits and Referral Decisions

Defines when power imbalance makes resolution inappropriate and referral to other processes is required. Ethical practice demands knowing when not to proceed.

Lesson 1 • Reframing and Perspective-Shifting Tools

Applies advanced reframing, role reversal, and future-visioning to shift entrenched perspectives. These tools extend the basic reframing skills introduced in Chapter 2.

Lesson 2 • Termination and Ethical Exit Strategies

Covers principled process termination when agreement is unachievable or ethics are compromised. Knowing how to exit protects parties and practitioner integrity.

Lesson 3 • Creative Option Generation Techniques

Introduces structured creativity methods to generate options parties have not yet considered. Novel options often resolve impasses that conventional bargaining cannot.

Lesson 4 • Diagnosing Impasse Types

Distinguishes substantive, procedural, psychological, and relational impasse to select the right intervention. Misdiagnosing impasse type is the most common cause of failed resolution.

Lesson 1 • Policy and Procedure Development

Guides drafting conflict resolution policies, grievance procedures, and escalation pathways. Clear policies reduce ambiguity and encourage early, informal resolution.

Lesson 2 • Conflict Management System Design

Introduces integrated conflict management systems as organisational infrastructure for dispute prevention. System design is the strategic capstone of all prior resolution skills.

Lesson 3 • Building Internal Resolution Capacity

Covers training peer mediators, coaching managers, and embedding resolution skills across the organisation. Internal capacity reduces dependence on external specialists.

Lesson 4 • Organisational Conflict Diagnosis

Provides diagnostic tools to map conflict patterns, hot spots, and systemic drivers within organisations. Accurate diagnosis prevents symptom-level interventions that miss root causes.