Keeping Conflict Productive: The Art of Self-Regulation and Disrupting Defensiveness

Healthy, productive conflict requires courage and confidence. Confidence comes from understanding and regulating ourselves, which allows us to better listen to the other person and courageously engage in collaborative problem solving. An essential skill to building conflict confidence is knowing our own defensive triggers and how to disrupt them. For this Lunch and Learn,  discover where defensiveness comes from, explore what the likely triggers are, and make a plan for how to disrupt it in the moment. 

Jenn Mahony is the Boston Children’s Hospital ombuds office director. She has 20 years of conflict resolution and conflict resiliency work as an ombuds, mediator, facilitator, conflict coach and educator. She focuses on restorative practices so that people can feel successful at work and in their working relationships. She obtained her J.D. from Emory University School of Law in 2001, worked as a dispute resolution professional and ombuds in New Zealand for almost 10 years, and was most recently an Associate Ombudsman at the National Institutes of Health. She is a member of the International Ombuds Association and the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand, where she is a fellow in arbitration and on the AMINZ mediation panel. She is a frequent presenter and educator on conflict resolution and building conflict resiliency at work.