Following the mediation process we explored in Chapter 3, The Mediation Process, is obviously one mechanism to resolve conflict, but it is not always appropriate. Here, we look at situations that may require some management intervention but not full mediation.
Situations where this may apply are where the conflict situation is not too deeply rooted and you are intervening at a relatively early stage. This is particularly the case where you as the manager have a good relationship with both employees and will be seen as neutral, and where your attempts to resolve conflicts previously have not compromised you in any way. Wherever possible, you should attempt to resolve matters between members of your team first (assuming they are unable to resolve themselves). Only if this is unsuccessful and the conflict remains unresolved or escalates should mediation be considered; it would be wrong to use mediation as a first step and as an alternative to good management intervention.
The following tips are key to resolving conflicts between employees in situations where you are not engaging in a full mediation process:
- Intervene rather than avoid: As stated previously, avoidance is not a good policy. It is your job as a manager to take action and once you have mastered the mediation skills you can do so with confidence. Also as mentioned, intervene sooner rather than later; do not let things fester.
- Prepare: Do your homework and gather the information that you need.
- Choose a good time and place: As mentioned, think about the time and place and make sure that you can meet where you will not be disturbed and overheard.
- Listen: Utilize your deep listening skills and pay attention to everything. Try to identify the emotions, needs, and interests.
- Don't judge: Just as in mediation, don't take sides. Remain neutral and suspend your judgement. It is important that the individuals understand that you will not take sides and that it is their responsibility to resolve the conflict proactively as adults (with support if need be).
- Help people to see the other side of the story: Again, as with mediation your job is to try and facilitate the employees' understanding of each other's perspectives and respective positions. You can use your reframing and questioning techniques here to help the individuals to achieve this.
- Meet together or separately: There are different opinions on whether you meet the employees together at all times or separately. The arguments are similar to the joint versus separate sessions in the mediation process. My view would be to meet separately first to get an idea of the issues of concern and to then bring the individuals together. To ensure that the session is constructive and the individuals have a full opportunity to speak, be heard and listen, and you can use the"uninterrupted time" technique and control the process in the same way as you would in a mediation. For example, summarize from time to time, identify the gaps and common threads, and encourage a focus on possible solutions.
- Ask for specific actions: Ask each person to describe specific actions they would like the other person to do to resolve the situation. By concentrating on actions the focus is on behavior rather than the character of each person. If the individuals struggle with this or you need to explore this further, a good technique is to ask each to identify what the other can do more of, less of or start doing.
- Involve all in the solution: Again just like mediation, the individuals should be fully involved in coming to their own solution; your role is to help facilitate this.
- Review and monitor: Set a time to review how things are going and monitor carefully to ensure that the commitment to resolve does not waiver.
Again, one of the key principles here is to intervene without delay rather than avoid and delay. As with mediation, it is important that you try to remain neutral and facilitate a resolution between the individuals concerned without taking sides. That said, if you become aware of inappropriate behaviour then this needs to be dealt with separately with standards of appropriate behaviour being made clear when necessary.