Course Objective & Scope
Objections and conflict are inevitable whenever teams and external partners hold different KPIs, constraints and risk tolerances. Trouble begins when parties dig into rigid 'positions' (what they demand), triggering either destructive turf wars or artificial harmony. Combining Harvard's Principled Negotiation ('Getting to Yes') with tactical empathy and de-escalation methods, this course teaches how to lower emotional temperature, uncover the underlying 'interests' (why they demand it), and convert resistance into joint problem solving.
Participants practice structured dialogue sequences on real customer objections and cross-functional team conflicts.
Who Should Attend?
- Team leads, department heads, project and product managers
- Sales, account management and customer success (CSM) professionals handling tough objections
- HR business partners and operations leads mediating inter-departmental friction
- No technical prerequisites
Key Takeaways
- Flex intentionally across the five Thomas-Kilmann conflict modes based on relationship and issue importance
- Separate the people from the problem to strip out ego battles and personal defensiveness
- Move beneath rigid positions to uncover underlying interests, fears and operational constraints
- Use emotional labeling, mirroring and tactical empathy to de-escalate heated exchanges within seconds
- Reframe objections from adversarial roadblocks into shared design constraints ('How can we solve for both?')
Curriculum
Anatomy of Conflict & The Thomas-Kilmann (TKI) Modes
- Distinguishing productive task conflict from destructive relationship conflict
- Selecting wisely across Competing, Accommodating, Avoiding, Compromising and Collaborating
Moving from Rigid Positions to Underlying Interests
- Unpacking the Iceberg: Position (what they say they must have) vs. Interest (the need or fear driving it)
- Diagnostic questions that unlock deadlocks: 'Help me understand what happens on your side if we don't do X'
De-Escalation Mechanics & Tactical Empathy
- Diffusing amygdala hijacks through affect labeling ('It sounds like you're concerned that...') and mirroring
- Shifting from mutual blame to mapping shared contribution in recurring operational breakdowns
Objection Handling Architecture: Acknowledge, Isolate & Reframe
- Separating surface smoke-screen objections from true blockers (risk, political cost, resource limits)
- Replacing adversarial 'Yes, but...' pushback with integrative 'Yes, and how do we solve for...' bridges
Side-by-Side Problem Solving & Objective Criteria
- Replacing tests of willpower with independent standards (benchmarks, data, precedent, shared principles)
- Live role-play lab: turning a deadlocked conflict into a jointly owned action plan
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