Conflict Lab Intensive

Previous Session:

Thursday, August 21, 2025 in Berkeley, CA

Intensive Participant

“This was the best one-day workshop I’ve ever been part of. The combination of engaging mini-lectures followed by real-world activities helped me really absorb the information and directly apply it to conflicts that I'm facing in the real world. My cofounder and I were able to strategize how to best handle complex conversations and conflict, making us even more efficient and effective! Highly recommend!!”

Missed it? Contact us below if you’d like to know about the next workshop or would like a custom session for your organization

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Missed the Intensive? Contact us.

We offer a few options:

  1. Customized workshops within companies and organizations

  2. One-day conflict intensives with mixed groups of participants from different organizations

  3. Organization / culture consulting around conflict resolution

Please reach out to us if you’re interested!

About the Intensive

Facing a conflict in your professional or personal life? Maybe you’re feeling some tension with someone, avoiding a tough conversation, or are just flat out angry and not sure how to proceed.

Join our Conflict Lab Intensive, where we provide tools to help you through YOUR conflicts. This is an opportunity to reframe conflict as an opportunity to build trust rather than something to be avoided.

This is a one-day, hands-on workshop based on the UC Berkeley MBA course Conflict Lab featured in The Wall Street Journal. Taught by Francesca LeBaron and Bree Jenkins, we’ve distilled the “greatest hits” of the 10-week curriculum into a powerful one-day experience.

During our time together, you’ll learn frameworks based on Non-Violent Communication and we’ll roleplay scenarios relevant to you. Examples of the kinds of conflicts we explore:

  • Giving feedback to a high-performing but difficult colleague, direct report, or family member

  • Navigating power dynamics with your manager or a friend

  • Setting boundaries in your personal life or at work

  • Managing underperformance or team tension

What’s included?

  • 1-hour pre-workshop zoom to meet other participants

  • One-day in-person workshop (with breakfast, lunch, & snacks)

  • 1-hour post-zoom workshop for additional practice

  • 1 personal coaching session with Bree or Francesca ($300 value)

By the end of this workshop, you’ll:

  •  Handle conflict with more skill, confidence, and. composure

  • Clarify your goals, intentions, and motivations in high-stakes conversations

  • Apply research-backed strategies for managing conflict effectively

  • Practice challenging conversations in a supportive, low-risk environment

  • Better understand your relationship with conflict and conflict style

Meet Your Facilitators

At UC Berkeley, Bree and Francesca are experiential educators who teach a course aimed at empowering Haas participants to navigate difficult conversations in the workplace based on role-playing real world examples of workplace conflict. Their course has been featured on NPR: Marketplace, The Wall Street Journal, and Poets & Quants. The Conflict Lab course is part of the Center for Social Sector Leadership at UC Berkeley.

Bree Jenkins is the former Manager of Leadership Development at Pixar Animation Studios where she designed and facilitated classes and workshops on Leading Inclusively, Effective Communication, the Value of Feedback, Navigating Difficult Conversations, and the Art of Listening.

Her educational background includes a BS in Industrial & Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from UC Berkeley – Haas School of Business. She is a certified coach through the Institute for Coaching Innovation.

Francesca LeBaron is a certified public mediator, conflict coach, restorative justice practitioner, executive coach and inclusive leadership trainer. She thrives at the intersection of leadership development, diversity, equity, and inclusion, storytelling and conflict resolution.

Her educational background includes a BS in Economics from Santa Clara University and an MBA from UC Berkeley – Haas School of Business. She is a certified executive coach through New Ventures West and a certified mediator and conflict coach through SEEDs conflict resolution center.