Walk or talk?

Unresolved conflict in the workplace is costing British business at least £33bn every year. And of course the cost is not to be measured in financial terms alone – consider the human cost of unresolved conflict: loss of morale, increased stress, poor performance, sickness absence – culminating, all too often, in valued staff members feeling their only way out is to leave. Conflict is inevitable, and as resources shrink and change becomes endemic in most organisations, levels are likely to increase. Finding a consensual approach to relationship building and problem solving has never been more important.

Traditional responses to conflict at work have tended to either ignore the issue and hope it goes away (work round the problem) or pursue through formal channels (grievance and employment tribunals). Neither is ideal. Avoiding conflict usually only stores up troubles further down the line. The real issues are never identified, let alone addressed. The grievance route? Time-consuming, stressful and with no guarantee that anyone will be happy with the outcome.

Mediation is fast becoming the preferred alternative. Simply, it is an informal, confidential, voluntary and flexible process where an independent person (the mediator) helps those with a conflict talk through their issues with a view to increasing mutual understanding and finding an agreed way forward. The mediator won’t take sides, won’t suggest solutions and won’t tell people what to do. What the mediator will do is manage the process, facilitate communication and support the parties in making their own decisions about how best to resolve the problem.

A typical mediation day will consist of a series of individual and joint meetings, with most mediations being completed within one day. Any points of agreement can be captured in a written document and taken away by the parties at the end of the mediation day. Unlike the more familiar, adversarial routes of disciplinary and grievance procedures, mediation is not about looking backwards, gathering evidence or having someone else decide who is right or who is wrong. Rather, it allows those involved to talk directly to one another – in confidence – about what’s happened, providing safe opportunity to flush out the misunderstandings so often present in relational conflicts before looking firmly forwards at what needs to change in the future. Crucially, it works from the basic premise that those with the problem know best how that problem can be resolved. Consequently, agreements made in mediation are likely to stick precisely because the parties have arrived at the resolution themselves.

Sometimes mediation will not be appropriate. If it is important that a case and its outcome be heard publically, then mediation – with its code of confidentiality – is not the right route. Equally if one or more parties is unwilling to participate, mediation won’t work. However, if mediation is not successful in resolving the issue, the option always remains for parties to return to the more familiar and formal routes. The average success rate for mediation is high, at about 80–85%. If parties are willing, even the most longstanding and seemingly intractable of disputes can be settled within hours.

Successive governments have increasingly embraced alternative dispute resolution as a means of resolving conflict at the earliest opportunity. In fact, as of 23 June this year, all Government departments and agencies are required to use alternative dispute resolution methods, including mediation, to resolve disputes rather than pursue settlement through the courts.

There are various ways of accessing a mediator. Large organisations are increasingly training their own internal teams, confident that the likely number of mediations will be sufficient to both warrant the investment and allow the mediators to keep their skills fresh. Others prefer to bring in an external mediator (the Civil Mediation Council website lists registered mediators and workplace mediator providers) as and when required. Whichever route you choose, take the time to research and choose carefully.

The capacity to build and retain good working relationships with our colleagues, especially when the going gets tough, can be a valuable indicator of our individual and organisational well-being. Mediation can help build that capacity. As one party from a recent mediation was moved to say: “As a means of finding common goals and moving forward, I cannot praise this process highly enough. It is amazing, it’s not a case of winning or losing, it’s a case of moving forward – something that I was previously unable to do.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.