The Team Isn’t Avoiding Conflict. It’s Avoiding You Noticing.
A team that never argues isn’t aligned, it’s quiet. The skill isn’t preventing conflict — it’s being the person who can stay in the room while it happens.
Completing this class earns you the Scrum Alliance® Conflict Management Skills Microcredential.
A Full Day on the Hardest Part of the Job
Every framework assumes someone in the room can handle disagreement well. Almost nobody is taught how, and the cost lands as unspoken resentment, a retrospective where nothing is said, and decisions nobody actually agreed to.
This is a full day of practice — scenarios and simulations rather than lecture — on recognising conflict early, de-escalating it, and facilitating through it without taking a side.
- Recognising conflict before it surfaces, and keeping your composure when it does
- Triggers, and how cultural background changes what reads as a trigger
- De-escalation techniques, practised
- Neutral facilitation and mediating a discussion you have a stake in
- Power dynamics, named out loud
You leave with a conflict management plan for your own team.
In development
No dates yet. Join the wait list to hear when they open.
What you'll learn
- Recognising potential conflict, and maintaining composure during a dispute
- Identifying triggers, and how cultural background shapes conflict dynamics
- Applying de-escalation techniques
- Developing neutral facilitation skills
- Mediating discussions and managing power dynamics
- Building psychological safety deliberately rather than hoping for it
- Creating a conflict management plan based on established practice
Who this is for
- Scrum Masters and Product Owners
- Agile coaches and organisational leaders
- Team managers and anyone accountable for how a team works together
- Anyone who wants to be better in a difficult conversation
What you get
- 8 hours of live, high-engagement training
- A conflict management plan drafted for your own team
- A handbook of the scenarios, to run with your team afterwards
- Your Scrum Alliance® microcredential badge, which doesn’t expire
- A 2-year Scrum Alliance® membership
- Discounted access to all future Artisan training events
The fine print
Agenda
A full day, eight hours, almost all of it practice. Bring a situation you’re living with:
Preparation
Focus: Before there is a conflict
- What psychological safety actually requires
- Reading a room before anything is said
- Your own reactions, honestly assessed
Dynamics
Focus: What is actually happening
- Triggers, and where they come from
- Cultural background and what reads as aggression
- Power dynamics in a supposedly flat team
De-escalation
Focus: Practised, not described
- Techniques that lower the temperature
- Staying neutral when you have a stake
- Simulations, in pairs and in the room
Your plan
Focus: What you do on Monday
- Mediating a real discussion
- Drafting a conflict management plan
- Bringing it back to a team that didn’t attend
One day, live. Times are Central and are confirmed when the cohort is scheduled.
Training formats
Live and instructor-led, in person or remote. A microcredential is short enough to take in a day and specific enough that a day is the right amount of time.
A student handbook you keep, with the exercises and room for notes
The Scrum Alliance® badge on completion, and a 2-year membership with it
Risk-free guarantee
Satisfaction is guaranteed. If, for any reason, you are dissatisfied with the class by the lunch break, let us know and we’ll refund your class fees. No questions will be asked.
Prerequisites
None. Some familiarity with Scrum will help, but the class assumes nothing.
Frequently asked questions
When does this run?
It doesn’t yet. This class is on the schedule to be built, and this page exists so you can say you want it.
Tell me you’re interested and I’ll write to you when the first cohort has dates — before it goes on the public schedule.
Is this only for agile teams?
No. The scenarios are drawn from agile teams because that’s where the practice is sharpest, and none of the skills are specific to Scrum.