Program Overview
We don’t teach Conflict Management as an isolated skill. We teach it as part of how organizations work, change, and grow. When handled well, conflict drives better decisions, stronger teams, and more honest cultures. When avoided — or mishandled — it quietly erodes trust, stalls progress, and costs organizations far more than anyone wants to measure.
URI OSI’s Conflict Management programs are built on the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI®), one of the most widely used and researched conflict assessment tools in the world. The TKI identifies five distinct conflict-handling modes — Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Accommodating — and helps individuals and teams understand which modes they naturally gravitate toward, which they underuse, and how to flex their approach when the situation demands it.
Partner with us
We believe in the power of collaboration. By partnering with OSI, you’ll receive customized solutions tailored to your unique business needs. From initial consultation to implementation and evaluation, we’re with you every step of the way.
Discover how our programs can transform your organization and unlock new opportunities for growth.
Benefits and Outcomes
- A shared language for conflict — Teams leave with a common framework for talking about disagreement in productive, non-personal terms, making difficult conversations easier to initiate and navigate.
- Individualized self-awareness — Through the TKI assessment, each participant discovers their default conflict modes and how those patterns affect their relationships, decisions, and team dynamics.
- Situational flexibility — No single conflict mode is right for every situation. Participants learn when to compete, when to collaborate, when to compromise, and when stepping back is actually the most strategic move.
- Team-level insight — Group TKI reports reveal collective patterns: where a team tends to over-rely on avoidance, where unproductive competition may be driving friction, and where untapped collaborative potential exists.
- Sustainable culture change — URI OSI’s approach connects individual conflict skills to organizational culture, so that teams not only manage conflict better, but build environments where conflict is psychologically safe and yields improved interpersonal and organizational outcomes.
Customization and Implementation
URI OSI tailors every conflict management engagement to the organization’s context, history, and goals.
Delivery options include:
- Individual TKI assessment and debrief — Participants complete the TKI online, receive a detailed personal report, and engage in a one-on-one or small-group debrief exploring their conflict profile in the context of their specific role and relationships.
- Team TKI assessment and workshop — The full team completes the TKI, and results are analyzed collectively to surface team-level patterns, conflict hot spots, and opportunities for a more balanced approach. Facilitated discussion and scenario practice are woven throughout.
- Modular conflict management training — URI OSI can deliver conflict management training as a standalone program or integrate it into an existing leadership development series, onboarding program, or culture-building initiative.
- Integration with Change Leadership programming — Because conflict and change are deeply intertwined — resistance to change is often conflict in disguise — URI OSI frequently delivers TKI-informed conflict management work alongside or within Change Leadership programs. Organizations navigating significant transition especially benefit from this combined approach. Learn more about our Change Leadership programs.
All programs include formative feedback and, where applicable, summative evaluation to measure skill development and application over time.
Why Choose This Program
Our team holds certification in the full Kilmann Diagnostics Complete Program, which spans eleven integrated courses covering conflict management, change management, culture, critical thinking, team dynamics, and organizational transformation. This means that when you work with URI OSI on conflict, you’re gaining access to a comprehensive, evidence-based framework that connects conflict skills to the broader organizational systems in which those conflicts live.
Whether your team is navigating interpersonal friction, cross-departmental tension, labor-management dynamics, or the emotional turbulence of organizational change, URI OSI brings the framework, the tools, and the facilitation expertise to turn conflict into a catalyst.
Who should attend:
- Leaders and managers navigating team or interpersonal conflict
- HR and organizational development professionals seeking evidence-based conflict tools
- Teams experiencing communication breakdowns or persistent dysfunction
- Organizations in transition where change-resistance is surfacing as conflict
- Any team that wants to build a culture where healthy disagreement is welcomed, not suppressed
