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Postdoctoral
Development
Centre

Managing challenging conversations

Practical information

  • Audience: Postdocs and research staff at Queen’s University Belfast.  
  • Date/Time: TBC
  • Duration: 3 hours
  • Location: The Canada Room and Council Chamber, Lanyon Building
  • Organised by: Postdoctoral Development Centre (PDC) | pdc@qub.ac.uk 

Content

In research, as in any professional environment, there are times when it becomes necessary to have a difficult conversation, whether with a manager, a colleague, or a student under your supervision, to address a concern or resolve a grievance.  Without open communication, such issues are unlikely to be resolved, and addressing them promptly and constructively is essential for both your wellbeing and the effective progress of your work.  However, engaging in these conversations can be challenging for a variety of reasons, and the temptation to avoid or postpone them is common.

This session will combine interactive exercises with insights from the latest research, offering a balanced approach that integrates both theory and practice.  All presentation slides and supporting materials will be made available in PDF format following the session.  Full licences will be obtained for any case studies or proprietary content used.

Programme Objectives

During the course, participants will:

  • Explore the importance of perceptions and cognitive biases.
  • Investigate what makes a conversation challenging.
  • Delve into the three elements behind every difficult conversation i.e. the what, 
    the feelings and the identity.
  • Discover impact vs intention, blame vs contribution and how to stay curious.
  • Discuss how to both give and receive challenging feedback.

The combination of theory and practice throughout this workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to explore techniques for having difficult conversations through a peer coaching exercise.

Registration 

Registration is currently closed.  Stay tuned for details.

Facilitator

Enda Young

Enda Young is a negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution specialist with over twenty years of experience as a practitioner and in delivering training, talks and lectures. Enda is the Founder and CEO of the Centre for Negotiation and Leadership and the former Managing Director of Mediation Northern Ireland. He is also the founder of the negotiation programme at the William J Clinton Leadership Institute at Queen’s University Belfast. Enda was responsible for the design, management, and delivery of both the senior and aspiring leaders programme at the Institute. He is a tutor for the programme on negotiation at Saïd Business School at University of Oxford and the Faculty Director on the Certified International Negotiator (CIN™) programme for the Chartered Institute of Professional Certifications in Singapore. 

Enda holds an MA in “Theory, Culture and Identity” and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast. He has been trained at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard University and at the Rotary Peace Fellowship Programme at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He is a certificated mediator with the International Mediation Institute (IMI) and the Mediators' Institute of Ireland (MII), an accredited Executive Coach with the Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC) and an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). 

He is a Council member for the Mediator’s Institute of Ireland and a Director and one of the Co-founders of FactCheckNI, the first independent fact-checking organisation in Northern Ireland. Enda was named as one of the top 40 under 40 in Northern Ireland in 2019 by Business First and he received the Leading Social Innovation category award by CO3 Chief Officers forum in 2024. He is co-founder and Event Director of the Garvagh Forest parkrun. Enda has worked with some of the world’s largest companies, universities and international NGO’s including: Equinor, Danske Bank, Almac, Roche, Durham University, Kent University, Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, Queen’s University Belfast, Oxford University, Aljazeera, Rotary International, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Development Programme etc. 

He has delivered talks and training throughout the UK and Ireland and internationally in: Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Germany, Thailand, Brazil, Romania, Turkey, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Canada and the United States.

Feedback

Rating (out of 5): 4.60

Recommended by: 100%

Number of feedback provided: 5

Quote: "Best course I attended so far, in terms of content, format, and energy. Thank you." (Participant 2024)