Conflict Management and Negotiating Skills - UK-OAG230

You will learn how to identify and defuse conflict as it emerges, strategies to turn events positively to improve relationships, and ways to carry your audit and advisory engagements to a positive conclusion despite differences of opinion.

Objectives

Common challenges:

• Getting audits on the audit plan
• How to demonstrate and audit has value
• Understanding management views
• Getting proper stakeholder buy-in to the focus of an audit
• Proven approaches to obtain management attention
• Dealing with difficult issues during assignments
• What is enough evidence?
• When/how to raise issues

Closing meetings:

• What should be achieved at the meeting?
• What must be done in advance?
• How many should attend?
• What if disagreements arise?

Other stakeholder management skills:

• Building an informal network
• Having a stakeholder map
• Thinking more about how to write e-mails

The elements of effective negotiations:

• Understanding what is valued and what is not
• Thinking about constraints and agendas
• Managing meetings with senior leaders
• What is a suitable frequency?
• What are other hallmarks of a good meeting?

Overcoming being ignored:

• Why does this happen?
• What to do about it

Understanding organizational and political constraints:

• Taking a step back to understand other factors that can affect relationship
• Advisory work
• Attending committees

Coaching your audit team to become better at influencing and stakeholder management:

• Recognizing the role of all staff to manage
• stakeholders
• Explaining warning signs that can alert you to
• bigger issues
• Sharing challenges and considering approaches to high stakes meetings