
Conflict Management: The Training Nobody Wants and Everybody Needs
Unresolved conflicts are a measurable driver of sick days and turnover — conflict management as a leadership competency within BGM reduces both metrics before escalation begins.
Why Conflicts Grow in the Dark Conflicts get ignored for too long in everyday work life because there's no established way to address them. A manager who steps in early — constructively, not by passing judgment — prevents the escalation that later affects everyone. That doesn't require training as a mediator, but it does require a basic competency: recognizing tension, naming it, and moderating it.
What a Conflict Management Workshop Can Achieve Good training simulates typical situations: the two-person conflict conversation, tension within a team, the poisoned atmosphere after a mistake. The goal isn't harmony at any cost, but constructive handling of unavoidable friction. Managers who master this are experienced by their teams as fairer — which pays off directly in health, engagement, and retention.
The Investment Pays Off in Turnover Costs How expensive is it when a good employee resigns because of a simmering, never-resolved conflict? Recruiting, onboarding, loss of knowledge — combined, that quickly adds up to a full year's salary. A training program that prevents such an outcome is economically a clear win, even with higher trainer costs. Companies where conflicts can be addressed openly simply lose good people less often.
How to put it in place
- 1Ziel schärfen: konstruktiver Umgang mit Reibung, nicht Harmonie um jeden Preis
- 2Qualifizierten Trainer/Mediator auswählen, der mit echten Praxisfällen arbeitet (kein Frontal-Vortrag)
- 3Zielgruppe klären: Führungskräfte zuerst, später ganze Teams
- 4Anonyme Praxisfälle aus dem Betrieb sammeln, an denen im Workshop geübt wird
- 5Workshop positiv rahmen: Kompetenz-Aufbau, kein „Problemfall"-Signal
- 6Vertraulichkeit zusichern: Was im Raum besprochen wird, bleibt im Raum
- 7Teilnahme während der Arbeitszeit sicherstellen
- 8Typische Situationen simulieren: Zweier-Konflikt, Team-Spannung, vergiftete Stimmung nach einem Fehler
- 9Konkrete Werkzeuge vermitteln: Spannungen früh benennen, moderieren, deeskalieren
- 10Übung vor Theorie: die Teilnehmenden sprechen und handeln selbst
- 11Mit klaren, alltagstauglichen Leitlinien abschließen, die danach als Orientierung dienen
- 12Nach 4-6 Wochen nachfassen: Wurde etwas im Alltag angewendet?
- 13Leitlinien sichtbar halten (z.B. im Team-Wiki) statt sie versanden zu lassen
- 14Bei Bedarf Auffrischung oder Ausweitung auf weitere Teams planen
What you need
- Effort
- multi-day
- Cost
- with budget
- Duration
- 1-2 Tage
- Setup
- 480 min
- ✓ In-depth
- ✓ Sustainable
- ✓ Culture change
Eligible for funding: up to €600 tax-free
As part of a structured workplace health process, this measure is tax-free under § 3 no. 34 of the German Income Tax Act (EStG) up to €600 per employee per year — BGF-Kompass supplies the process. Certified offers (e.g. from Upfit) are additionally subsidised by statutory health insurers under § 20b SGB V.
Health-insurer funding & tax: how to apply →Start this measure now
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Contributes to
Action field
Healthy Leadership →A fitting occasion
Related best practices
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