Leadership Skills for Effectively Engaging Workplace & Organizational Conflict

Cliff Jones, Senior Consultant
Nonprofit Association of Oregon

Teri Pierson, Facilitation Program Coordinator
Resolutions Northwest

Conflict often surfaces within work teams, Boards, and organizations because we miscommunicate, interpret things differently, hold different values, and/or seek opposing goals. Unresolved conflict can result in negative outcomes, such as the loss of productivity, turnover of staff and volunteers, low morale, and failure to achieve the goals and mission of the organization.

Effective leadership is critical in creating an environment in which facing conflict can build rather than diminish organizational capacity.

Would you like to:

• Use conflict to build a respectful problem solving culture in your workplace?
• Gain tools for using differences to build stronger outcomes, relationships, and organizational systems?
• Facilitate the resolution of conflict between colleagues/co-workers?
• Help your organization align diverse viewpoints in service of its mission and goals?

This full-day, interactive training is designed to support you in developing these skills. It will support managers and staff in nonprofit organizations to welcome conflict interactions as key opportunities to solve problems, build morale, and increase organizational capacity and adaptability.

About the Presenters

Cliff Jones is a human rights activist with over 30 years’ experience in social services, community education, and human rights advocacy. He has experience as a frontline staff, supervisor, project manager, and executive director. He is co-founder of Tools for Diversity, a comprehensive curriculum led by a multi-cultural team that addresses problems caused by discrimination and prejudice and supports building culturally competent organizations.

Cliff has served on the Boards of McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, Funding Exchange Foundation, Oregon Minority AIDS Coalition, Multnomah Legal Service Workers Union, and Peer Counseling Community. He has been a trainer for the Black Leadership and Community Development Institute and is a recipient of Nordstrom’s Cultural Diversity Community Service Award.

Teri Pierson is the Facilitation Program Coordinator at Resolutions Northwest and a facilitator, trainer, and mediator in private practice. She has over 20 years’ experience as a trainer, beginning with anti-oppression issues and later adding intercultural communication and conflict resolution. As someone who grew up in a harmony-seeking household, she is sometimes surprised at how much joy and satisfaction there is in engaging actively with conflict. In this work, Teri especially draws on the empathy skills learned first from her parents and grandparents, her experience practicing Aikido (a Japanese martial art), an always-refocusing equity lens, and the tools of mindful facilitation for intercultural conflict.