Conflict Management Workshops
Practical training that strengthens the skills your team needs for difficult conversations, disputes, and heated situations.
How we can help
Disagreements and conflict happen all the time. How well we handle them makes the difference between situations being opportunities for learning and growth, or damaging relationships and escalating into corrosive long-running disputes.
Interact runs conflict management workshops that give your team practical skills to step into difficult situations confidently — whether the situation is between team members, with clients, or in their personal lives. Our workshops are delivered by AMDRAS-accredited mediators and qualified dispute resolution professionals who do this work for a living.
Our workshops
We offer two scheduled courses and can build custom training to suit your situation.
Conflict Management First Steps (CM-FS)
A structured short course in handling everyday conflict moments — for people who haven’t had formal training in dispute resolution but find themselves managing difficult situations anyway. Committee members, club secretaries, colleagues, neighbours, parents at a sporting event. The everyday “first responders” of conflict.
CM-FS gives you three things:
- A framework for understanding what’s happening when conflict shows up.
- Practical skills for the situations you’re most likely to face.
- Judgement about scope — what you can usefully do yourself, and when a situation needs more formal handling.
Two versions to choose from
CM-FS runs in two parallel versions. They share the same structure and core skills, but the framing, examples and emphasis are different:
Public Workshop
Online via Zoom
For individuals wanting to handle conflict better in their own life.
The central question: Am I reacting, or am I choosing my response?
Examples drawn from: home, family, neighbours, friends, workplace, and everyday public situations.
Association Leaders
Online or in person
For people in support roles in associations: committee members, grievance officers, club secretaries, branch presidents, and others.
The central question: How do I keep things from escalating, and when do I refer?
Examples drawn from: committees, AGMs, member disputes, and association governance.
What you’ll learn
- What’s happening when people get angry — the physiology of anger, the 90-second emotional wave, and the body’s role in moving from reaction to response.
- Four ways of listening — recognising your own habitual pattern, and choosing the right way to listen for the situation.
- Responding when someone is angry with you — how to de-escalate, validate someone’s feelings without endorsing their view, and what not to do.
- Hearing a vent or complaint about someone else — recognising the pull to take sides, and a five-step process for listening usefully without colluding.
- The difference between a request and a demand — and how to make a real request when you need something to change.
- When to step in, when to step back, when to refer — knowing the scope of what you can usefully handle, and when to bring in a more formal process. For Association Leaders, this includes the basics of natural justice and committee documentation.
Format
About 2 hours 40 minutes of content in a three-hour session block, with a 15-minute break. Roughly a third of the workshop is structured pair and small-group practice — this is training in the skills, not a presentation about them. Participants get a workbook and a short Quick Skills Tips extract to take away.
Who delivers it
CM-FS is delivered by AMDRAS-accredited mediators and qualified dispute resolution professionals from the Interact team, typically in a co-trainer pair. The course draws on established work in anger physiology, the four ways of listening, and the EAR technique (Empathy, Attention, Respect) from the High Conflict Institute — translated into plain English and immediate practical use. It is foundational skill-building, not mediator training.
Contact us for the next Public Workshop dates, or to schedule an Association Leaders session for your committee.
Conflict Management First Aid (CM-FA)
Practical training in four core areas to help your team handle difficult conversations and intervene in conflict situations.
- The four ways of listening — how to listen to hard-to-hear messages, and choosing the right way to listen for the situation.
- Needs and what’s underneath the behaviour — how to hear the unmet needs underneath someone’s difficult behaviour and respond well.
- A five-step process for transforming conflict — a simple, repeatable framework for making a request for change when you don’t like someone’s behaviour.
- Dealing with complaints brought to you — strategies for managing the dynamic when someone keeps bringing you others’ conflicts to resolve.
Format: Three hours in person, or two sessions delivered online. Both come with a comprehensive workbook and a lot of interactive activities — it isn’t a lecture.
Download the CM-FA brochure (PDF)
How a workshop runs
Our scheduled courses are available in three formats:
Private workshop for your team
Schedule a workshop just for your team or organisation. Most cost-effective option for groups, and the content can be tailored to your specific situation.
Public workshop you host
You host a workshop for your clients, customers, or members of the general public. Useful for service providers, community organisations, and member-based groups.
Online workshop
The same workshop delivered remotely as two online sessions, available as either a private or public workshop. Works anywhere in Australia.
Other training and facilitation
As well as our scheduled workshops, we can deliver:
- Group facilitation when your team needs help working through a specific issue together.
- Customised workshops on related topics tailored to your organisation’s needs.
- Mediation information sessions for service providers — an overview of what mediation is, how to refer clients, and how to support clients going through it.
- Conflict Management for One — one-to-one sessions for people who feel blocked and unable to participate in mediation. Tailored to your specific situation, to bring clarity about a way forward.
Contact us to discuss what would suit your situation.
Frequently asked questions
What workshops do you offer?
Conflict Management First Steps (CM-FS) and Conflict Management First Aid (CM-FA). We can also deliver customised workshops, group facilitation, mediation information sessions, and Conflict Management for One — tailored to your situation.
How long is the CM-FA workshop?
Three hours in person, or two sessions online. Both come with a comprehensive workbook and interactive activities.
Who are the workshops for?
Teams, organisations and individuals who want practical skills for managing difficult conversations — whether at work, with clients, or in their personal lives. Our scheduled workshops are not specialist training and assume no prior experience.
Do we need a minimum number of participants?
Workshops work best with a group of around eight to twenty people. Smaller and larger groups are possible — get in touch and we’ll work out what fits.
Can the workshop content be customised?
Yes. For private workshops we can incorporate examples relevant to your industry, role, or specific challenges. We can also build customised workshops from scratch if our standard courses aren’t quite the right fit.
Get in touch
Tell us about your situation and we’ll get back to you with options and a quote.
Phone: 1300 079 345
Email: office@interact.support
Enquiry form: complete our online form