The course has been funded by the HSCP Office, HSE. As such, places are available to social workers in the publicly funded healthcare service only. Tusla staff are not eligible to attend. Social Work has been allocated 10 places on this course.

This is a collaborative one-day workshop between Social Care Ireland and the Irish Association of Social Workers. With this in mind it has been designed for those who have come to realise that that the ‘wait and hope’ approach to navigating conflict is not effective.  Instead, one can learn to proactively navigate conflict, ensuring that all voices are heard, and that the most workable and practical solution can be implemented.  Navigating conflict is our new mind-set, in which we help teams move from conflict to constructive disagreement as a catapult to high performance.

We all face conflict at work. Maybe it’s a boss who took all the credit for your project or a colleague who keeps going over your head to get more resources. In these situations, some of us shy away from having a disagreement, and some of us dig right into the difficult conversation. Whatever your natural tendency is, dealing with conflict is a crucial skill to succeed at work. It can lead to higher job satisfaction, stronger relationships with colleagues, and innovation.

This proactive workshop will develop a toolset for addressing types of conflict that we might encounter, with peers and colleagues, superiors, clients and in general when we are faced with a situation where the other party has a different idea of what the outcome should be. During the workshop we also introduce a number of tools that can assist in the diagnosis of a conflict situation using some real-world examples.

Facilitator: Dr Gearoid Hardy, leadership development consultant with over 35 years’ experience of implementing change in both public and private sectors. He has gained extensive experience and knowledge working in higher education, healthcare, financial services, technology, manufacturing and policing. His career has both an Irish and an international dimension, having worked extensively across Europe, Middle East, Asia and the US. Gearóid has been an adjunct lecturer for 25 years, lecturing on leadership and management on MBA and Masters programmes in a number of Universities across the world. He coaches CEO’s and senior executives from a diverse range of backgrounds including senior UCD staff. He is accustomed to asking the challenging and often unpopular questions that draw people out of their comfort zones. He continually prompts leaders to reassess the situation, leading them to new found clarity from within.