Disputes within your team? Here are some vital tips from an experienced mediator on how to avoid workplace legal proceedings.
Mediation will, in most cases, be a more desirable path to take with grievances within your broking team than legal proceedings. Danielle Carney provides eight tips for successfully navigating the art of mediation.
1. Ensure your mediation outcomes are clear, measurable and achievable: Agreements between the parties should be concrete and pinned down with detail so there is a clear understanding about what changes are necessary to restore a productive working relationship. Don’t allow the ‘I’m going to be nicer’ commitment to wash – it is not a real and sustainable mediation outcome. Your Mediation Action Plan might look similar to a performance plan: what is the action, who else needs to know about it, how do we measure it, what could impact it and when do we know we have succeeded.
2. In a mediation, identify any environmental or systemic change required to readjust the workplace in order to prevent the conflict from reoccurring: Take the opportunity to go beyond the human cause and consider process, system or organisational factors. Actions to eliminate them will most likely belong to someone outside the immediate mediation, so refer them on.
3 Harness the frontline leader in the mediation process: Gaining an understanding of the conflict or relationship from the frontline leader allows the mediator to have a fuller picture of the conflict prior to commencing the mediation. With permission from both parties, providing the leader with greater detail about the agreements made in the Mediation Action Plan will assist the leader to support the parties in implementing their agreements and taking ongoing responsibility in managing the relationship.
4. Don’t initiate mediation if a party is not ready: For a meaningful discussion to occur and a change to take effect, the parties need to be open to seeing the conflict through another’s eyes and engaging with the other person in a constructive way. You may commence with a shuttle mediation until the parties have clearly identified their interests and needs and have moved to be forward focused.
5. Similarly, don’t commence mediation if a party is too focused on wanting to know they are right; that is, wanting vindication: Mediation does not involve confirming that someone has done the right or wrong thing in a conflict. It requires an open mind to appreciate or respect, not necessarily agree with, each other’s perceptions and move forward together with concessions.
6. Don’t embark on the mediation if a party does not have the nous to have an open and confronting discussion: It sounds harsh but it takes a degree of communication skill to participate in mediation. To sit in front of someone who you feel less than comfortable with and talk about how you perceive their interactions and what you intended with yours is difficult and confronting. You have a role in developing their communication skills to allow them to participate in the mediation.
7. Support your frontline leaders in identifying and managing conflict: They are in the best spot to act early. They can recognise when a conflict sparks; they know the people involved and will have the best feel for the next step. Train your frontline leaders in managing down conflict early and responding to grievances, by providing grievance handling training.
8. Don’t allow your bullying policy to be a ‘how to’ guide for bullying: Ensure it emphasises desired conduct and outcomes, is underpinned by your organisational values, and establishes a framework that allows you some involvement in influencing the path for resolution of a conflict (e.g. an initial triage step). Also, ensure that mediation is an early step in the process, not one that is post-complaint or just before an external avenue such as Fair Work Commission is taken.
Danielle Carney is director of Peel HR Consulting and Mediation. Visit www.peelhr.com.au for more information.
1. Ensure your mediation outcomes are clear, measurable and achievable: Agreements between the parties should be concrete and pinned down with detail so there is a clear understanding about what changes are necessary to restore a productive working relationship. Don’t allow the ‘I’m going to be nicer’ commitment to wash – it is not a real and sustainable mediation outcome. Your Mediation Action Plan might look similar to a performance plan: what is the action, who else needs to know about it, how do we measure it, what could impact it and when do we know we have succeeded.
2. In a mediation, identify any environmental or systemic change required to readjust the workplace in order to prevent the conflict from reoccurring: Take the opportunity to go beyond the human cause and consider process, system or organisational factors. Actions to eliminate them will most likely belong to someone outside the immediate mediation, so refer them on.
3 Harness the frontline leader in the mediation process: Gaining an understanding of the conflict or relationship from the frontline leader allows the mediator to have a fuller picture of the conflict prior to commencing the mediation. With permission from both parties, providing the leader with greater detail about the agreements made in the Mediation Action Plan will assist the leader to support the parties in implementing their agreements and taking ongoing responsibility in managing the relationship.
4. Don’t initiate mediation if a party is not ready: For a meaningful discussion to occur and a change to take effect, the parties need to be open to seeing the conflict through another’s eyes and engaging with the other person in a constructive way. You may commence with a shuttle mediation until the parties have clearly identified their interests and needs and have moved to be forward focused.
5. Similarly, don’t commence mediation if a party is too focused on wanting to know they are right; that is, wanting vindication: Mediation does not involve confirming that someone has done the right or wrong thing in a conflict. It requires an open mind to appreciate or respect, not necessarily agree with, each other’s perceptions and move forward together with concessions.
6. Don’t embark on the mediation if a party does not have the nous to have an open and confronting discussion: It sounds harsh but it takes a degree of communication skill to participate in mediation. To sit in front of someone who you feel less than comfortable with and talk about how you perceive their interactions and what you intended with yours is difficult and confronting. You have a role in developing their communication skills to allow them to participate in the mediation.
7. Support your frontline leaders in identifying and managing conflict: They are in the best spot to act early. They can recognise when a conflict sparks; they know the people involved and will have the best feel for the next step. Train your frontline leaders in managing down conflict early and responding to grievances, by providing grievance handling training.
8. Don’t allow your bullying policy to be a ‘how to’ guide for bullying: Ensure it emphasises desired conduct and outcomes, is underpinned by your organisational values, and establishes a framework that allows you some involvement in influencing the path for resolution of a conflict (e.g. an initial triage step). Also, ensure that mediation is an early step in the process, not one that is post-complaint or just before an external avenue such as Fair Work Commission is taken.
Danielle Carney is director of Peel HR Consulting and Mediation. Visit www.peelhr.com.au for more information.
