Conflict Management

Two people need the same person on the same morning, and both have a real reason. Farah has a fault on line two. Tomás has an export batch that ships today. Sunil cannot be in both places.

You can end it in thirty seconds by deciding. It will come back.

Three meters move with every choice. **Resolution** — whether the issue is actually settled in a way that holds. **Relationship** — whether the working relationship survives it. **Escalation** — how far the heat climbs. Handle it well and the first two rise while the third drops. Handle it badly and you get a truce that fails, or a fight that festers.

Then, at the moment it matters, you are handed the approach that works — not as theory, but as the move you just needed and did not have.

**What learners take away**

- Choosing the conflict style that fits the moment by weighing how much the goal and the relationship each matter — instead of defaulting to competing or avoiding

- Getting past each side's stated position to the interest beneath it

- Building the resolution on the shared or compatible need, rather than splitting the difference

- Voicing the problem with DESC — behaviour, effect, what you need, the payoff — without dominating or going silent