When a conflict tears a team apart, few remember the tiny disagreement that sparked it.
Staying silent and hoping time will fix things, or sending one curt message too many. Two opposite reflexes, the same result: growing tension. This module teaches you to spot what feeds a conflict, cut off what fuels it, and open the conversation you keep putting off, starting from the facts, then the feeling, then the request.
~20 min at your own paceKey skill: Preventing ConflictAvailable in FR + ENNo prerequisites
What you’ll take away
- a simple image to read any conflict: the spark on one side, the fuel on the other
- three steps to break the silence, down to the exact words for opening the conversation
- a warning against buying peace, which rewards whoever shouts the loudest
Who it’s for
Colleagues, managers, and project teams who want to address a disagreement early, before it harms cooperation.
Learning objectives
- Distinguish the original problem in a conflict from the inflation that feeds it, using Jean Poitras’s distinction.
- Recognize the four reasons for avoidance: denial, inhibition, fear of losing, and the illusion that time fixes things.
- Open the conversation you avoid: show the cost of silence, prepare your words, and state a fact, a feeling, a request.
- Defuse three forms of escalation—competition, emotional hurt, assumed bad intent—by negotiating, listening, or returning to facts.
How does this module work?
The steps of the Adaptive module.
- Self-assessmentOn nine dimensions, to gauge current habits and guide the practice.
- Expert videoA ~10 min video with three pauses for reflection.
- Practice scenariosThe first two scenarios chosen from the self-assessment, then sixteen more, optional. Every answer gets feedback: what it leads to, and one way to improve.
- Dated commitmentOne action to try, written by the learner or chosen from the suggestions.
- Memo to downloadKey takeaways, questions, commitment, personal notes, and checklists.
Duration: ~20 min. Excluding bonus practice scenarios and optional in-depth content.
