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Defusing Difficult Situations - Tips on Coping with Conflict
Basic Level Training
Hosted by U.S. EPA, Community Involvement and Program Initiatives Branch
Community Involvement University (CIU)

What is the course overview?
Conflict often is unavoidable but how EPA staffers handle it can make a significant difference in the outcome of a challenging meeting or encounter. Preparation is key, and that includes understanding how a public meeting or other situation can go bad in the first place, and then employing effective strategies and tools to defuse hostility and avert further conflict.

Who should take this course?
This course is recommended for EPA staffers who regularly engage with the public and other stakeholders. There are no suggested prerequisites.

What are the course learning objectives?
Participants who complete this course will gain skills on how to:

  • Understand why conflict occurs and how to recognize the types and levels of conflict likely to occur at a public meeting or other stakeholder encounter;
  • Prevent conflict from escalating and regain control over the situation;
  • Harness the power of body language to convey calm and confidence – even in combative situations;
  • Recognize and handle specific types of disruptive individuals; and
  • Develop ways to cope with the personal discomfort that can accompany conflict.

What are the logistics?
This one-day course includes videos of effective and not-so-effective stakeholder meetings and several group exercises such as on-camera, role-playing exercises featuring real-life contentious meeting situations, followed by a group critique. Participants are contacted a few weeks prior to the course and asked to bring examples of challenging meeting encounters to share with the class. Maximum course size is 25 participants.

Pamela Avery and Dominic Frederico teach this course. Ms. Avery is a national communications consultant who has provided EPA communications training for more than 15 years. An IAP2-certified public participation professional, she serves as a neutral facilitator at EPA-hosted stakeholder meetings and has personally handled numerous contentious situations for the EPA and others. Mr. Frederico is an Emmy-award winning TV photojournalist who, as an independent cameraman, regularly works under pressure on news stories and documentaries for dozens of major network and cable TV programs. He has worked with Pam Avery as EPA spokesperson/media course co-trainer for 10 years.

Is there available background material?

  • Participants receive a customized EPA “Defuse Hostile Meetings and Other Difficult Situations” Training Manual during the workshop.
  • Full-day workshop participants also receive a DVD of the on-camera session.

Formerly titled Defusing Hostile Situations: EPA Spokesperson Training.

For general information contact Tina Conley by telephone at 703-603-0696 or via e-mail at conley.tina@epa.gov

 Upcoming Events

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Previous Events (click to view/hide)
Bullet  Live Online Class, Internet Based
  October 5, 2022 - October 5, 2022
Bullet  Live Online Class, Internet Based
  September 19, 2022 - September 19, 2022
Bullet  Chicago, IL
  April 17, 2019 - April 17, 2019
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