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Description

Professional Relationships: Listening, Expressing Your Needs and Defusing Tensions

Working with colleagues you did not choose, without losing your energy or your results

  • 2 days — 14 h
  • In-person or virtual
  • Foundation
  • Up to 6 participants

Relationship difficulties are costly day to day. A file stops moving because two departments are no longer speaking. A comment taken the wrong way leaves a mark for months. A colleague has been avoided since the last meeting. Few people are equipped for these situations: we rely on instinct and end up either avoiding the issue or losing our temper.

Two days to understand what is really at play in a difficult working relationship, to listen properly before responding, to make a request without attacking and to state a disagreement without breaking the relationship. The work starts from the situations participants are actually facing.

Learning objectives

  • Identify your habitual way of reacting in situations of tension
  • Practise a form of listening that checks understanding before responding
  • Formulate a clear request by distinguishing the fact, the feeling and the need
  • Express disagreement without calling the relationship into question
  • Restore dialogue after an exchange that went badly

What makes this programme different

A diagnosis of your reactions under pressure, revisited throughout the two days
Real situations brought by participants, role-played and then refined
A written script for the difficult conversation each participant must hold on returning to work

Programme

1What Is Really at Play in the Relationship

Understand before correcting

  • Facts, interpretations and judgements: three levels routinely confused
  • Your reactions under pressure: withdrawal, attack or resignation
  • The effect of hierarchy and of what is at stake on the exchange
  • What belongs to the individual and what belongs to the organisation

2Listening for Real

Understand before seeking to be understood

  • Letting the other person speak without preparing your reply
  • Questioning to clarify without turning it into an interrogation
  • Restating the content and what is at stake for the other person
  • Acknowledging an emotion without commenting on it

3Saying What You Have to Say

Requesting, declining and expressing disagreement

  • Describing an observable fact without attributing intent
  • Explaining the concrete impact on your work
  • Making a negotiable request and confirming the agreement reached
  • Saying no while preserving the relationship and offering an alternative

4When the Relationship Has Been Damaged

Repair rather than avoid

  • Reopening an exchange that went wrong without replaying the conflict
  • Addressing unspoken issues that have built up within a team
  • Resetting a relationship where the other person does not change
  • Knowing when to involve a third party

Who is it for

Anyone working in a team or across departments who wishes to improve the quality of their working relationships

Prerequisites

No prerequisites

Dates & locations

36 scheduled dates between November 2026 and December 2027. Seats are confirmed in the order enquiries are received.

November 2026

December 2026

January 2027

February 2027

March 2027

April 2027

May 2027

June 2027

September 2027

October 2027

November 2027

December 2027

None of these dates suit you? We open additional sessions on request, and any programme can be run privately for your team.

Practical details

Before the programme
Online positioning questionnaire. Your development objectives are shared with the trainer, who tailors the practical case studies to your context.
Teaching methods
Theoretical input, workshops and practical case studies. Digital course materials and method sheets provided.
Assessment
Multiple-choice tests and role-play exercises. Assessment of learning at the start and end of the programme, with immediate and 60-day follow-up evaluations.
After the programme
One year of access to the e-learning platform. Self-assessment of the skills acquired and a 30-day follow-up session with your trainer.
How to register
Registration online or on the basis of a quotation.
Lead time
11 working days after confirmation of registration.
Accessibility
Accessible to people of determination. Contact our accessibility coordinator to design a suitable solution: contact@mpf-academy.ae
Start dates
Rolling intake: in addition to the scheduled sessions, this programme can start on request.