Corporate De-escalation Training
in Boston

There are many people who work in organizations that believe that they have the requisite skills to de-escalate tense and emotional situations and resolve conflicts, whether these are incidents that occur between co-workers/employees, and/or involve dealing with highly emotional and dissatisfied clients and customers etc. In many of these types of cases what an individual engaged I was not really de-escalation and conflict resolution, but rather forcing those involved in a dispute to accept a company policy regarding disputes and confrontation e.g., enforcing a rule, such as swearing being an unacceptable behavior in a workplace etc. Whilst such boundaries may need to be enforced etc., they shouldn’t be confused with de-escalation and conflict resolution; just because a person may recognize that the way they are acting/behaving violates a company’s policies and procedures, this doesn’t mean that their complaint or conflict has been addressed.

One of the goals of effective/good de-escalation and conflict resolutions in corporate settings is that those involved leave with what was a negative interaction, with a positive/optimistic expectation of any future interactions e.g., a client/customer may feel they were disrespected and inconvenienced by having to wait a relatively long time to be seen etc., but now understands and accepts the reason(s) why this occurred, and is optimistic in any future dealings with the company/organization i.e., they walk away with a positive image of the organization/brand they were interacting/dealing with.

Whilst de-escalation deals with an immediate problem, such as a highly emotional and erratic individual, when it is coupled with conflict-resolution it looks to address something which is much longer term e.g., the individual’s perception of the brand/organization and their relationship to it. Strengthening somebody’s perception of an organization – whether it is an employee or a customer – results in substantial benefits for an organization, from a variety of different perspectives whether it is the cohesion of a team/department or creating/maintaining a satisfied customer etc. When managers and/or employees know how to manage conflict(s) a better and safer workplace environment is created.

Such de-escalation and conflict-resolution training is also essential for those who are responsible for, and take an active part, in a company’s/organization’s “hiring and firing” policies. Few people receive bad news well, even when they might be expecting it e.g., even somebody who is expecting to be laid off may react badly when they actually receive this information. Being able to successfully manage such a situation which has the potential to escalate into a verbal confrontation that could turn physical is a skill that those tasked with terminating conflicts should have. Our training can easily be adapted to the contexts in which an organization’s members potentially face disputes and aggression. If you are interested in any of the services that we offer, please use the form below to contact us.