Conflict plays an important role in human interaction. Conflict reveals differences that can be a fertile source of insight in group discussions and deliberation. Effective group decision-making relies on these differences in expertise, experience, and concerns. Too often, however, we shy away from conflict or get embroiled in it.

Take this course to see conflict in a new light and identify concrete strategies for approaching conflict through “slow thought” situational analysis, applied self-awareness, and conscious response. Improve your contributions to meetings, teams, and committee work and decrease the likelihood that such discussions flounder and fail.

“If we manage conflict constructively, we harness its energy for creativity and development.” Kenneth Kaye, Workplace Wars: Turning Personal Conflict to Productive Teamwork (1994)

“In a conflict, being willing to change allows you to move from a point of view to a viewing point – a higher, more expansive place, from which you can see both sides.” Thomas Crum, The Magic of Conflict: Turning a Life of Work into a Work of Art (1998)