Positive Power Plays: Skills for Conflict & Negotiation
All leaders experience conflict in one form or another. In this class, you will learn how to turn conflict into collaborations and reach win-win resolutions. You will see conflict to clarify roles, relationships, and heighten creativity. Learning how to reach beyond the impasse and find solutions that work is one of the best tools that leaders can use.
What you will learn:
- The 5 conflict styles.
- Strategies for building trust.
- The 4 stages of conflict resolution and how to use them for any situation.
- The best listening strategies to use for the best resolution.
- Emotion management and anger resolution techniques.
- How creativity plays into resolving conflict.
- Steps to planning a negotiation conversation
Registration Information
Date: August 6, 2026
Schedule: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Location: UW-Madison campus
Looking for leadership opportunities for your aspiring and emerging leaders?
See all GROW classes listed on our Classes & Training page. These affordable, skills-based courses focus on fundamental skills like conflict management, emotional intelligence, delegation, communication, and more.
We may also be able to bring training to your team!
Registration Summer 2026
Date: August 6, 2026
Time: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Location: UW-Madison campus
Fee: $289
Registration Deadline Type
Early Bird
Late Registration
Course Registration Closes
Date
Early Bird Closes: 7/7/2026
Late Registration Begins: 7/26/2026
8/5/2026
Fee
Early Registration Fee: $260
Late Registration Fee: $318
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Cancellation Policy: Due to program costs and space limitations for these programs, participants are expected to cancel their registration at least 24 hours ahead of the program. Cancellations that occur less than 24 hours prior to the start of the program will be considered no-shows and may be removed from future programming and/or charged a course fee.
Disability Statement: Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact the UW-Madison SBDC office at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu to request accommodations.
The Small Business Development Center at UW Madison is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®.
Patricia Clason, Instructor
Patricia Clason is a communicator of the highest skill. She has been a professional speaker, trainer, consultant and writer for thirty years, doing over 4,000 presentations internationally. As the Director of the Center for Creative Learning, her focus is on alternative methods of teaching and learning that produce high quality results. As adjunct faculty at three universities, she specializes in emotional intelligence, ethics, coaching, leadership and mediation/conflict resolution. Patricia’s latest book “Speaking of Success” co-authored with Stephen Covey, Jack Canfield and Ken Blanchard, is now available at her website: Center for Creative Learning.
Patricia was absolutely incredible. She challenged us to think critically and pushed us to think about uncomfortable situations. One of the best courses I’ve ever taken – GREAT job!
Patricia was very flexible in the coursework to fit [participants’] scenarios and really listened. Patricia gave great resources and had very helpful discussions. Overall a phenomenal course.
Patricia was great! She teaches by making you think and reflect. She makes it fun, interesting, and relatable – I wish the class was longer! She gave us solutions and strategies for us to use in daily life.
[I liked the] practical applicable strategies with opportunity to discuss and explore. Very effective teaching style with a structured format and the opportunity to learn from one another. Instructor practices what she preaches. Incredibly helpful and approachable!
I liked how structured this course was. There were aims and targets that helped me to increase my understanding of today’s content as a whole.
Patricia was an effective communicator. She was very smart and knowledgeable about the content, and I learned a lot from her examples that she provided.
The instructor kept our attention for the whole session, so all the content was impactful. I liked the exercise with real-life examples and break out groups.
[I appreciated] discussing how to view negotiation and conflict resolution from the other person’s point of view.
Patricia was so knowledgeable. I enjoyed her stories and how she related things to real life. Course was very interesting, fun, and engaging.
[I appreciated] the structure of learn-apply-learn-apply-etc. and the simulations.
Patricia was awesome! Very methodical, thoughtful, and prepared.
Great work – one of the best courses I’ve ever taken. I enjoyed the stories [scenarios] and applying and practicing the skills.
Patricia did a great job explaining the topics in easy-to-understand ways.
A good refresher on coaching with a new twist on the psychology of interactions. I came away so energized that I ordered some of the books on her recommended reading list.
The Wisconsin SBDC Network is a proud part of the Office of Business & Entrepreneurship within the Universities of Wisconsin. It is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison is also part of the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub at UW-Madison.
The Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison helps entrepreneurs succeed at any stage. We offer no-cost, confidential consulting and business education across a wide region, primarily serving Dane, Sauk, and Columbia counties. SBDC services are provided in a nondiscriminatory way to all legal residents and citizens in the US.
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact us at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or call (608) 263-2221.