Training Session Plan: Conflict Management

Session: Conflict Management

Session purpose: The purpose of this session is to give you tips and techniques to help you prevent and resolve conflict
situations that may arise.

Learning outcomes: By the end of this session you will be able to:
• Understand how your brain responds to potential conflict and how this effects your own and
others’ behaviours in relation to conflict
• Recognise the early signs of a conflict, and the key drivers and characteristics of conflict
• Select appropriate response options in relation to the different types of conflict
• Apply strategies and skills to confidently resolve and manage conflict effectively, productively
and decisively both on and off the field
• Assess the effectiveness of conflict strategies as a conflict manager and mediator.
Facilitator:

Duration: 2.5 hours

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Resources: Starting activity:
• One envelope (big enough to hold the pieces of paper)
• A pen
• A pile of small pieces of paper (e.g. cube notelets)
Felt pens or coloured pencils (1 for each person)
4 sheets of flipchart paper with one of the following headings on each:
• Acting in a professional manner
• Non-verbal communication techniques
• Active listening techniques
• How to promote cooperation and good relationships.
Blu Tack
Case study: recognising and dealing with the early signs of conflict
Fact sheet: Managing conflict
Role play activity cards
• Official cards (1–5)
• Player/coach/support cards (1–5)
• Role play observation sheets
Self-check quiz
Evaluation forms

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Preparation Starting activity:
required: • Have the starting activity resources ready before the participants arrive for the session
• On the front of the envelope write: What are you most afraid/wary/nervous of when dealing
with a conflict situation?
Managing conflict brainstorming activity:
• On the top of the flipchart paper write one of the following headings:
- Acting in a professional manner
- Non-verbal communication techniques
- Active listening techniques
- How to promote cooperation and good relationships.
• Use Blu Tack to put the flipcharts up in different rooms or parts of the main session room.

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Time Instructions Resource
INTRODUCTION

Pre-session activity Starting activity resources:

• As participants arrive for the session ask them to jot down on a piece • Envelope
of paper their response to the question on the front of the envelope. • Pen
• Let them know that their responses are anonymous. • Small pieces of paper
• They should put their paper into the envelope.
15 mins INTRODUCTION

15 mins Welcome and overview of training session

• Welcome participants to the training session.
• Do introductions by asking the following questions:
- Name
- Sport
- Why did you get involved?
- What do you hope to achieve from this training session?
• Go through housekeeping, e.g. emergency procedures, location of
toilets, expected finish time.
• Go through the session purpose and learning outcomes.

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20 mins OUR BRAINS RESPONSE TO POTENTIAL CONFLICT

Introduction
1 min
Sporting environments and competitions evoke a lot of emotion and passion for
those involved including the spectators.

This makes the officiating role challenging and at times puts you in a potentially
hostile situation. There is a common perception that official’s are regularly
abused. This is not necessarily the case. There is some abuse but this is
isolated and it receives disproportionate publicity from the media.

Dealing with conflict can be tough for an experienced official, let alone if you are
an inexperienced one. Good officiating relies on dealing with conflict
professionally and positively.

Conflict and your brain

Why do we naturally react to potential threats the way we do?
It’s all to do with how the different parts of our brain receive and process
information. Our response will likely be based on patterns or behaviours that we
followed under similar situations.
8 mins Activity: scenario discussion
• Read out the first part of the refereeing scenario from page 1 of the Factsheet: Conflict and Your
factsheet. Brain aka ‘The Amygdala
Hijacking’
• Ask the group the following question: what happens next physically
and mentally for the ref? (see the factsheet for answers).
• Ask the group if they know why it is that we have little or no ability to

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 rely on intelligence or reasoning in these situations.
• Discuss the ‘amygdala hijack’ concept with the group (you can refer to
the factsheet for information).

5 mins What can you do to reduce the chance of an ‘amygdala hijack’?

• Ask the group for ideas on how they could reduce the chance of an
‘amygdala hijack’ (see the factsheet for suggestions).

1 min Are you interested to know more about how our brain works?
• If anyone is interested to know more about how we receive and
process information they can read the factsheet titled ‘Conflict and
your Brain aka ‘The Amygdala Hijacking’.

5 mins
When does conflict arise?
Brainstorming activity: typical conflict situations
• Ask the group to share typical situations where conflict seems to arise Whiteboard
in their sporting code.
• Write the responses up on the whiteboard.

25 mins PREVENTING CONFLICT

Introduction
Prevention is always better than cure! Recognising the early signs of conflict and
developing strategies to prevent conflict from arising is important. There are still
occasions when conflict is inevitable.

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10 mins Case study: recognising and
Case study activity: recognising the early signs of conflict
dealing with the early signs of
• Break the group into pairs or groups of three.
conflict
• Explain what they need to do:
- Read the case study
- Jot down the group's answers to the three questions that follow the
case study situation.
- Give each group a copy of the case study and suggest they find
some space away from the other groups to complete the activity.

10 mins Debrief case study activity

• Go through each question asking the groups to share their responses.
• Possible answers for question 1 include:
- Bob’s body language, i.e. marching, shaking his head
- Verbal, i.e. muttering sarcastically about Tim’s ability, and yelling out
in frustration.
• Possible answers for question 2 include:
- Bob was annoyed because he got there early and expected Tim to
be there so they could catch up before the game started
- Tim was short with Bob and dismissed him since the game was
starting
- Bob is under pressure because his team must win today to make
the playoffs.
• Possible answers for question 3 include:
- Getting to the game with plenty of time spare
- Showing Bob some empathy because there was no time for them to
talk rather than just dismissing him

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 - Tim should have tried to relax and put his stressful start behind him
once he got to the game
- At the first ruling Tim should have briefly discussed his decision and
his interpretation of the law to potentially avoid further penalties in
the game.
5 mins General tips for managing a game to reduce the chance of conflict
• Discuss general tips for managing the game in a way to reduce the
chance of conflict happening. Examples include:
- Smile and use a calm manner and pleasant style to create a positive
environment. This in turn has a positive effect on the players,
coaches and most spectators
- React immediately to rule infringements when appropriate
- Remain objective no matter what prior knowledge of players/teams
an official has
- Be definite and firm with decisions and communications
- Look sharp and act sharp (this will help gain respect)
- At the beginning of the game/competition, provide structure and
guidance.

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25 mins TECHNIQUES TO MANAGE AND RESOLVE CONFLICT CONFIDENTLY

Introduction
Even if you have implemented good conflict prevention strategies, you will often
be called on to manage and resolve conflict situations.
Did you know that 90% of conflict occurs not because of what was said, but the
tone in which it was said!

7 mins Flipchart activity: tips for resolving conflict 4 pieces of flipchart paper
each with one of the following
• Break the participants into groups of four.
headings:
• Ask each person to select a felt pen or coloured pencil. • Acting in a professional
• Give the instructions before sending the groups off: manner
- You have one minute at each flipchart to jot down your tips and • Non-verbal communication
techniques relevant to the heading, e.g. non-verbal communication techniques
techniques for managing and resolving conflict. • Active listening techniques
- There are four flipcharts to move around.
• How to promote
- Once I call out time, move onto the next flipchart and do the same. cooperation and good
- At the end of the activity we will have a whole lot of practical tips and relationships.
techniques to help you manage a conflict situation.

Note for the facilitator:

This is a good activity to get people up and moving and to inject energy
into the session. Playing music during this activity is also a good idea if
you have the facility.

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4 mins Debrief flipchart activity: tips for resolving conflict
• Put the four flipcharts up at the front of the room.
• Check that all key techniques have been covered (refer to the role play Role play observation sheet
observation sheet as a guide).

Group discussion: sharing experiences and strategies

6 mins
• Ask the participants to share some of their personal managing conflict
‘success’ stories.
• Ask them to give the group a brief description of what lead up to the
conflict and how they managed it.
• Ask the group how they can assess the effectiveness of the conflict
strategies they are using.

Spectators and others

3 mins
Spectators and others frequently disagree with official’s decisions. Comments
from spectators are part of the officiating environment.
As a group, spectators usually show highly emotional responses and often take
delight in antagonising officials. At times your decisions will infuriate them to the
point where they can become hostile towards you.

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 To help deal with the pressure created by spectators:
• Don’t engage with the spectators, e.g. no eye contact or verbal
response (this can incite the spectator more). Their aim is to get your
attention and distract you from doing your job well.
• Ignore spectator comments as best you can by blocking them out.
Usually, comments are not meant personally. If you don’t ignore the
comments it can lead to lapses in concentration which can lead to rule
and infringement errors.
• Keep calm and focus on the more important areas of your officiating
role.

There are times when spectator abuse starts to wear the official down. Abuse is
negative and regular abuse reduces the enjoyment for officials.

5 mins Group discussion: procedures for escalating unacceptable behaviour

• Ask the group what procedures should be followed in situations where
spectator behaviour becomes serious and contravenes the rules of
their sporting code.
• Confirm, correct or add detail to the answers given by the group.
• Comment that if anyone is concerned about abuse they should seek
support from others. Other experienced officials can share additional
strategies or offer you a new approach to try. Sports administrators
also have a role to address abuse and can offer strategies to stop the
abuse of officials.

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40 mins PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Practicing your conflict management skills • Official role play cards

(1–5)
30 mins Activity: role plays
• Player/coach/spectator role
• Explain that although it may feel a bit funny doing a role play, it is a play cards (1–5)
good opportunity to practice some of the techniques we’ve covered in
• Role play observation
a ‘real’ situation and to learn from others in their group.
sheets
• Explain that there are a number of different conflict management role
plays that each official will have to respond to and manage. The idea is
that everyone will get a go at managing at least one situation. If there
is spare time, the group should complete all role plays.
• They should try and make each role play last for a couple of minutes
so there is time for the official to practice using relevant strategies and
techniques.
• The observer should use the observation sheet to jot down some quick
notes so they can provide some positive feedback and a suggestion
once each role play is finished.
• Before starting any role plays, everyone should take a couple of
minutes to:
- Decide who will play each role for each scenario
- Read the role play information
- Do some preparation on how they might handle the situation and
what their dialogue might be.
- Look over the observation sheet.
• Split the group into groups of three and designate each group an area
where they can go (ideally different rooms or as far away from each
other as possible).

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 • Hand out the role play cards and sheets
• Tell the groups to come back to the main room/area once all role plays
have been done and feedback has been given.
10 mins
Debrief role plays
• Ask each group to share some of the best practice techniques people
in their group demonstrated.
10 mins CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING QUIZ Self-check quiz
• Hand out a copy of the self-check quiz to each participant.
• Ask them to answer the multi-choice questions.
• Answers can be found on the bottom of the reverse side of the sheet.
15 mins SUMMARY AND CLOSE

8 mins The original fear/concerns/situations ‘Starting activity’ envelope

containing the participant
• Open the envelope from the start of the session and read out the
responses
responses the participants had to the question.
• Ask the group if they feel they have a strategy or strategies they can
use to overcome the fear or situation described.
• If time allows summarise some key points relating to strategies they
could use to overcome the fears or situation.
5 mins Training session evaluation
Evaluation form
• Hand out a copy of the evaluation to each participant.
• Ask them to complete the evaluation.
• Let the participants know that we really appreciate their feedback so
we can understand what is working well with the session and what
could be improved.

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2 mins Thank participants
• Thank the participants for their input and for sharing their experiences
with others.

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