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More
Event Type
Online Learning Event
Topic
Health & WellbeingLeadership
Format
Cost
Free
Event Date
Start: Dec 2, 2025
Event Time
Start: 9:30 am End: 11:00 am
Venue
Online (Zoom)
Facilitated by:
Karissa Sovdi M.C., R.C.C.
Registration Open:
Healthy workplaces require healthy workplace relationships which require healthy communication. While it’s easy to think of conflict as a threat to such workplace harmony, productive communication can only happen when we embrace conflict rather than avoiding it. Similarly, navigating conflict rather than letting it build up, can enhance wellness and reduce the negative impact of conflict on employee health. For employees to effectively engage in strategic and client-centred work within a diverse environments they have to find ways to respectfully dialogue across difference and understand how to navigate conflict in healthy ways.
This session will provide an overview of The UVic Conflict Project as a case study for increasing employee’s capacity for navigating tricky conversations at work, and will feature key resources that comprise UVic’s employee conflict management framework alongside the real life stories and research that shaped them.
Participants will engage with and reflect on the tools, principles and processes and consider how to practice better conflict in their own organizations.
Here is what you can expect:
Review the costs of unproductive conflict, the types of conflict that manifest in organizations, and contributing factors to an organization’s conflict culture using real life examples from UVic
Reflect on UVic’s conflict principles and conflict resolution map as an example of a principle-based approach to improving workplace health
Experience a virtual tour of the self-serve, web-based conflict toolkit for both leaders and teams
Explore the Experience Cube as a practical model for navigating difficult conversations at work
Consider how conflict fluency could impact the health of your organization
Director of Organization Development and Learning ServicesHuman Resources, University of Victoria
Karissa has been working, playing, and living on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən people since 2010 and has been part of the UVic community since 2012. Her background as a counsellor, educator, facilitator, and improvisor uniquely position Karissa to cultivate experiences and programs that build trust, enhance engagement, and strengthen teams and communities.
In her current role, Karissa works with colleagues to design and deliver programs, projects and services that make UVic a great place to work. This includes providing oversight to leadership development, and employee learning, recognition, engagement and conflict fluency alongside other strategic HR initiatives.
In addition to her Masters in Counselling from City University of Seattle, Karissa holds several certificates in various psychometrics (Lumina, Cultural Intelligence, Conflict Dynamics Profile), facilitative techniques (Liberating Structures, Art of Hosting), and leadership and conflict approaches (Workplace Restoration, Restorative Justice Dialogue, Critical Incident Debriefing, High Conflict Coaching). Such training heavily informed the research, collaboration, and creativity that underpinned the development of UVic’s Conflict Fluency Framework.
In and outside of work Karissa enjoys playing with words and can often be found dabbling in the production and performance of written, spoken, musical, and comedic arts.
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