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Handling a Conflict or Complaint

Run the Handling a Conflict or Complaint MicroSim fullscreen

About This MicroSim

The worst time to invent a complaint process is during a complaint. This flowchart is the process written down in advance, so a mentor facing an upset parent on a Saturday morning knows what the next step is without improvising.

The shape of the flow matters as much as the steps. Documentation comes before the safety question, so the facts are recorded while they are still fresh and before anyone decides how serious the situation is. The single decision diamond splits the path: safety and harassment escalate the same day, ordinary disagreements get mediated. Both branches then rejoin -- every path ends with a documented outcome and an entry in the lessons-learned log.

That last step is deliberate. It hands recurring conflicts back to the improvement cycle from Chapter 1, so a problem that keeps happening eventually changes the code of conduct rather than being handled from scratch each time.

How to Use

  • Hover any step to preview what it involves.
  • Click a step to pin its details in the panel while you trace the rest of the flow; click it again to unpin.
  • Colours group the steps: blue for documentation, amber for the decision point, red for the safety-escalation branch, green for resolution and closure.

Lesson Plan

Bloom level: Apply (L3) -- implement

Learning objective: Given a reported conflict or complaint, the learner correctly identifies the next step in the club's defined resolution process.

Before the sim (5 min). Describe a scenario out loud -- a parent emails to say another student mocked their child's project -- and ask the group what they would do first. Note how many answers skip straight to talking to the students.

With the sim (10 min). Walk the flow from the top. Stop at Club Leader Documents the Report and ask why documentation comes before the safety question rather than after it. Then stop at the decision diamond and work out together which branch the opening scenario takes.

After the sim (15 min). Run three scenarios as a group, each learner naming the next step at each node:

  1. Two students argue over whose turn it is on the shared laptop.
  2. A student reports that a mentor made them uncomfortable.
  3. A parent says their child's kit was taken home by someone else.

Scenario 2 must take the red branch immediately. If anyone routes it to mediation, that is the misconception worth spending the rest of the session on.

Check for understanding. Give a scenario mid-flow -- "the mediation is done, now what?" -- and ask for the remaining steps. Naming both the family communication and the log entry is the objective met.

Embedding This MicroSim

Paste this into any page of the book, adjusting the relative path to docs/sims/ for the page's depth:

<iframe src="../../sims/conflict-resolution-workflow/main.html" width="100%" height="682" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Specification

The full specification below is extracted from Chapter 3: Writing Your Club Charter and Safety Policies.

Type: workflow
**sim-id:** conflict-resolution-workflow<br/>
**Library:** Mermaid<br/>
**Status:** Specified

Purpose: Show the concrete sequence of steps a coding club follows from an initial complaint or conflict report through to a documented outcome, so mentors know exactly what to do rather than improvising in the moment.

Bloom Taxonomy: Apply (L3)
Bloom Taxonomy Verb: implement

Learning objective: Given a reported conflict or complaint, the learner correctly identifies the next step in the club's defined resolution process.

Steps (flowchart with decision diamond):
1. Start: "Complaint or Conflict Reported" -- click reveals "Any mentor, student, or parent can report a concern to the club leader or assistant leader."
2. Process: "Club Leader Documents the Report" -- click reveals "Date, people involved, and a factual description are written down within 24 hours, before memory fades."
3. Decision: "Does This Involve Safety or Harassment?" -- click reveals "Safety and anti-harassment-policy violations always escalate immediately; ordinary disagreements do not."
4a. Process (if yes): "Escalate to Venue and, If Needed, Authorities" -- click reveals "The venue's own safety contact is notified the same day; law enforcement is contacted immediately for any safety emergency."
4b. Process (if no): "Club Leader Mediates a Conversation" -- click reveals "Both parties are heard separately first, then, if appropriate, brought together with a mentor present."
5. Process: "Outcome Is Documented and Shared With Involved Families" -- click reveals "Families receive a summary of the resolution appropriate to what they need to know, respecting other students' privacy."
6. End: "Entry Added to the Lessons Learned Log" -- click reveals "Recurring conflict types get flagged so the club can adjust its code of conduct or session structure, echoing Chapter 1's continuous improvement cycle."

Interactivity requirement: every node above has a Mermaid `click` directive wired to an infobox showing its revealed text; this is not a decorative flowchart.

Color coding: Blue for documentation steps, yellow for the decision diamond, red for the safety-escalation branch, green for resolution and closure steps

Implementation: Mermaid flowchart syntax with `click NodeId call showInfo("...")` directives for every node, rendered with a custom infobox panel beneath the diagram

References