Below is what you need to design and implement an effective learning experience with Style Matters Online. If you prefer videos, start with the videos section, then refer to the trainers' guides and other resources as needed.
Download Trainers Big Guide to Successful Conflict Styles Training. This free 45 page guide to conflict styles training explains the five styles of conflict, the concepts of Calm and Storm, how to work with the cross-cultural aspects of Style Matters, and provides step-by-step guidance through a workshop. In addition you need...
Download Trainers Small Guide to Style Matters Online. This free 10 page supplement builds on concepts in the big guide above and applies them to training with the online version. If you’re just facilitating a conversation, you can get by with just this supplement to design your discussion. If you’re feeling ambitious and expecting to give inputs as an active trainer role, you should have both.
View Intro to Conflict Styles slide show, available in either traditional Powerpoint format or dynamic Prezi format. This short slide show, free for online viewing and available for purchase offline, introduces core concepts of the five styles of conflict and serves as a great prelude to discussion of score reports.
Videos. There are several short videos to help users interpret their scores on our site. You might want to encourage your users to review one or several of them before a workshop. You'll find them useful to you as a trainer as well; they'll give you ideas for presenting key concepts clearly.
Handouts. If you like to work from handouts, download these. They’re not required for training with the online version. But if you have time for them, they’re a solid addition to a workshop.
Tutorial. The tutorial on our website packs a lot of info about conflict styles into a few pages, on topics like the cross-cultural feature of Style Matters, the Storm shift, interpreting scores, anger management, and more.
Assignments. If you have students writing papers, see this blog post by Ron Kraybill with several ideas for assignments you could give.
Style Matters Online harnesses digital power to do interpretation that required an expert in the past. The algorithm combs a user’s scores for insights and presents them in a detailed, eight page report that is easy to understand, even without additional input. With this score report, anyone with ordinary group facilitation skills can lead an engaging and illuminating learning experience, drawing on the free resources above.
The core concepts in Style Matters Online come through in the user's score report and the short support videos linked to it. This gives organizers a lot of options:
Whatever learning approach you use, try to figure out a way to help users "take it home". Expanding our conflict resolution skills with the people we interact with on a daily basis is the foundation for improvement in all areas of life. If we can do it there, we can do it anywhere!
An unusual feature of the online version of Style Matters is suggestions for partners of the user. Most conflict style assessments address the user only. "Here’s your scores, here’s how you compare to others, here's what your numbers mean."
That's like clapping with one hand. Conflict happens in relationships. True, one person can do a lot to make things better. But the potential is higher when people work together on it. Here's where the "aha moments" come.Here also is where people begin to experience conflict transformation, which comes when we realize that we need not be victims of conflict. Diversity, disagreement, even conflict can be beneficial resource rather than a danger. But like keeping a clean house, this doesn't happen on its own. We have to make it happen.
A section of the Style Matters score report is designed for conversation between the user and someone who knows them well. It offers specific suggestions - based on the scores of the user - for partners about what to do when things get dicey between them and the user. People who live or work together can review these together, and proactively negotiate patterns of communication for times of difficulty. It's surprisingly easy and rewarding!
If there's no cooperative partner available, a coach, colleague or trainer can also help a learner to have a useful conversation about this section. Self-knowledge is power. You empower a learner simply by helping them think about their requirements for best functioning. Invite the learner to reflect out loud on the suggestions offered for others who live or work with them. Eg: "What do you think about these suggestions for someone living or working with you?" Your role here is not to advise or teach. Simply be a deeply interested and supportive listener. Even if they don't ever get to discuss this report directly with those they live or work with, the "thinking out loud" process will empower the learner to handle conflicts more constructively.
