The Tasmanian Local Government Association of Tasmania (LGAT) conducted two workshops on 24 and 26 April 2002, to assist elected members in handling conflict. The workshop covered a variety of conflict handling issues, including conflict perception; emotion and conflict; negotiation as a conflict resolution strategy; styles of conflict; managing conflict within the Council; and assertiveness strategies.
“The handling conflict workshop was a great success with 13 attendees representing 11 Councils including three Mayors and ten Councillors,” said LGAT Public Relations Manager, Glenwyn Dolan. “Not a large number of participants but extremely participative.”
Workshops Presenter, Allan Jeffrey from Jeffrey Human Resources, has been working closely with Local Government for a number of years and has an excellent understanding of Local Government issues/personalities and the difficulties faced particularly by newly elected members.
All participants were encouraged to work together in groups discussing potential conflict situations and working on resolving issues. The feedback was extremely positive indicating that the workshops had been enlightening and worthwhile.
