There are a wide variety of important skills trainers and employees in organizations need for success. Not only do trainers benefit from developing these skills to best deliver training programs, but employees benefit from developing these skills to better do their jobs and navigate issues of differences. These skills are essential for employees to navigate working with diverse others. In fact, the trend in diversity training is moving more in the direction of conflict resolution and communication to address diversity-related issues and challenges.

A variety of programs are available for trainers to use to help employees navigate the challenges that come with all levels of differences. Conflict resolution focusing on issues-based negotiating is important to include in diversity training programs. Beyond teaching people how to approach negotiations from a mutual gains perspective, some argue that a solid foundation has to exist before people can practice their negotiation and conflict resolution skills.

Taking on the spirit of cooperation and helping others see the value of abandoning a zero-sum approach will make negotiating through a conflict more palatable and increase the likelihood of successful resolution with value for all. The only way to do this is for organizations to work on building trust among their employees, teaching them basic decision making and perceptual biases that can interfere with the ability to communicate and resolve problems. Along with negotiation and conflict resolution skills, employees need to be engaged with activities that teach active listening and nonverbal communication.

Most communication is nonverbal, including elements such as how close we are to someone’s personal space, tone of voice, and body language. Making sure these things are in alignment is essential to successful communication. Active listening skills are also important so that we don’t just hear people talking but we are actually listening and engaging with them based on what they are communicating. Helping people navigate better communication will not make conflict over differences go away, but it can help them work through those differences more readily.