WHAT TO INCLUDE

1) Welcomes and words of encouragement

2) Personal introductions – check what the parties prefer to be called

3) Explaining briefly the purpose of the mediation, and the role of the mediators which is to

•    give each side the opportunity to speak and be heard

•    control the session with the parties’ help

•    explore ideas for settlement realistically

•    not make decisions for the parties or judge right or wrong

•    work towards the future rather than go back constantly over the past

•    help the parties work at their pace, and make the best possible use of the time

4) Introducing and agreeing ground rules, and what is expected from the parties

(You may find it useful to have these on a flipchart. You could also give them to the parties on a card which they could read while they were waiting for the session to start.)

ü     listening – speak one at a time

ü    openness – it is requested that the parties are open with one another, information when requested and are also open to the possibility of a resolution

ü    patience – people are asked to stay in the room – we can discuss problems and doubts if   they arise

ü     people are expected to remain seated at all times

ü    confidentiality (and note-taking) –  apart from an agreement anything said stays in the room, notes will be destroyed, things said in mediation cannot be used in court

ü     respect – avoid accusation and blame, and abusive language

ü    control – people may be angry or upset, and they and mediators can call a break, but the mediator will use various kinds of control to keep both sides working as constructively as possible, for example, interrupting name-calling sessions

ü    voluntariness – people may decide the session is not working for them – they are asked to alert the mediators and can discuss this with them in a side meeting, (or caucus) if they want to

5) Explaining how the session will be run:

•    comfort facilities and breaks, duration of session

•    who will speak first – outline of the process

•    agreements may be reached, can be written, and are not binding in court

6) Dealing with questions

7) Checking with each disputant’s willingness to participate

Guidelines for mediators’ opening statement - during the statement the mediators should be:

• Engaging individuals without bias
• Dealing with misunderstandings, misapprehensions
• Introducing selves and process clearly, confidently and in a way that the parties can understand
• Building trust and rapport
• Creating a calm atmosphere
• Using appropriate, simple language

Note: You may need to vary the style and language of your opening statement for different circumstances and different people. Check with participants whether there are any cultural considerations to take on board.

Meeting with your co-mediator:

You may want to check how each of you feeling and how you like to work in order to establish a good working relationship.

Decide how you will conduct the mediation e.g. who will be responsible for the introduction, ending, taking notes, time keeping.

Who will deal with distractions such as people interruptions and people coming in and out?

It is useful to remind yourselves of the approximate time limit set for the mediation and to check whether either of you has a strict time limit, remembering to allow time for de-briefing after the mediation.

The preliminaries:

Introduce yourselves clearly, showing your I.D. badge (if applicable). Ask how they would like to be addressed (Mary or John, or Mr or Mrs etc).

- consider where it is best to sit.

- establish who is going to be present.

- be careful that you get the party’s permission to make notes.

Pre-mediation statements and questions

• “What are your expectations?”
• “What are your goals from this meeting?”
• “What have you tried so far to resolve this?”
• “What are your expectations of me?”
• “I can help you to make choices and decisions.”
•  “I’m not in the situation take sides. My job is to allow you and your colleague to …………
• “It sounds to me that you want to meet your neighbour. Am I correct?”
• “Is that what you want?”
• “How do you see the situation?”
• “Where you want me to go with this?”
• “What outcomes or goals are important to you?”

THE STAGES OF MEDIATION

1 Get started on a positive note:

• create and keep ground rules

2 Listening time – give each side a full hearing:

• focus on specifics
• move away from blame
• reflect and summarise what you hear
• separate performance from personality

3 Learning to work together:

• search for common goals
• agree the problem

4 Working towards agreements:

• encourage communication
• take one issue at a time
• create options
• check feasibility
• work out an action plan

5 Agreeing measurable actions:

• confirm details of action
• check understanding of tasks
• work out fall-back proposals and ways of continuing working on the problems
• arrange follow up

Mediation is managing conflict through the efforts of a third party that brings the conflicting parties together and tries to resolve it with them through discussion of the issues. The goal is to try to find a workable strategy that both parties agree to work with.

There may be times that you are called to intervene and manage conflict between colleagues at work so you will find the following guidelines invaluable when mediating.

Mediation is:

•    structured – mediators help people take things one step at a time, in a particular order (for example – clarifying and agreeing the problem/s before looking at solutions. Expressing concerns before creating ways forward)

•    specific – people are expected to be clear about what is happening, how they feel, and what they want to do about problems.

•    safe – it has inbuilt ground rules to help keep lines of communication open, maintain control, and encourage feelings to be expressed without aggression or blame.

Mediators help the disputants:

•    communicate – say what they need to, hear what the other side has to say, and respond to one another’s concerns.

•    co-operate – work together on problems, and work towards settlement, rather than aiming to win, or at least be proved right.

•    be more confident – trust themselves, trust one another, find creative ways of fixing problems. Use their interpersonal skills rather than falling back into negative patterns such as ‘avoid’ or ‘fight’.

Mediators do not:

•    make decisions for the parties

•    judge who is right or wrong

•    take sides

Key tasks for mediators

Before you start:

• prepare yourself – are you the right person, can you be impartial?

• prepare the room – is the atmosphere relaxed, will you be free from interruptions, is it a non-adversarial setting and a safe, neutral environment?

• prepare the others – let them know in advance how the session will work, get them to clear their diary. Cover their absence; think about what they need to say.

Mediation is based on the principle of collaborative problem-solving, with a focus on the future and rebuilding relationships, rather than apportioning blame.’

Quote from mediation policy, University of Central Lancashire

Mediation is where an impartial third party, the mediator, helps two or more people in dispute to attempt to reach an agreement. Any agreement comes from those in dispute, not from the mediator. The mediator is not there to judge, to say one person is right and the other wrong, or to tell those involved in the mediation what they should do. The mediator is in charge of the process of seeking to resolve the problem but not the outcome.

Mediators may be trained employees who act as internal mediators in addition to their day jobs or they may be from an external mediation provider. They can work individually or in pairs as co-mediators.

Mediation distinguishes itself from other approaches to conflict resolution in a number of ways. Mediation is:

• informal
• flexible
• voluntary
• morally binding but has no legal status
• confidential

What does mediation seek to achieve?

Mediation seeks to provide an informal and speedy solution to workplace conflict, and it can be used at any point in the conflict cycle. What the process offers is a safe and confidential space for participants to find their own answers. It does this in a number of ways, by:

• exploring the issues, feelings and concerns of all participants and rebuilding relationships using joint problem-solving
• allowing those involved to understand and empathise with the feelings of those they are in conflict with
• giving participants insights into their own behaviour and that of others and opening up opportunities for change
• helping participants develop the skills to resolve workplace difficulties for themselves in future
• encouraging communication and helping the people involved to find a solution that both sides feel is fair and offers a solution that favours them
• using energy generated by conflict in a positive way to move things on.

What happens during a mediation?

There are distinct phases in the mediation process. The first stage will be to deal with the parties separately, while the remaining stages will generally be dealt with during the joint session. There may be a need to separate the parties at various points and speak to them individually – if there appears to be an impasse or the mediator feels that one side is unwilling to divulge information that might help to break the deadlock.

There are occasions where shuttle mediation – the mediator moving between the parties and relaying the views of each – has to be used because parties will not sit in the same room with each other; or because at certain points it is more effective to do so. But the aim is to bring them together eventually.

Although mediation is generally assumed to take place face to face, in special circumstances, it can also be carried out via email, video link or over the phone.

There are no hard-and-fast rules for when you can or cannot use mediation.

Who? It can be used for conflict involving colleagues of a similar job or grade, or between a line manager and their staff. It can be used, exceptionally, where there is conflict between teams, or between a trade union or groups of employees and management.

When? It can be used at any stage in the conflict as long as any ongoing formal procedures are put in abeyance, or where mediation is a stage in the procedures themselves. It can be used after a formal dispute has been resolved to rebuild relationships.

What? It can be used to address a range of issues, including relationship breakdown, personality clashes, communication problems, bullying and harassment.

A judgement call

There are situations where it may not be appropriate to use mediation, but it is often not clear-cut and it will be up to the mediator or whoever is overseeing the mediation process to make a judgement on a case-by-case basis. It is often said in relation to mediation that ‘if you can’t make it better, don’t make it worse’.

Mediation may not be suitable if:

• used as a first resort – because people should be encouraged to speak to each other and talk to their manager before they seek a solution via mediation
• it is used by a manager to avoid their managerial responsibilities
• a decision about right or wrong is needed, for example where there is possible criminal activity
• the individual bringing a discrimination or harassment case wants it investigated
• someone has learning difficulties or mental health problems
• the parties do not have the power to settle the issue
• one side is completely intransigent and using mediation will only raise unrealistic expectations of a positive outcome.

There are some areas where mediation can prove particularly useful, however.

• Relationship breakdown

There is a clear hierarchy of issues that employers perceive as suitable for mediation. In the CIPD (2007) survey of employers who had used mediation, researchers found that:

‘Outstandingly the most suitable for mediation is judged to be relationship breakdown. This underlines the value of mediation as a method of leading parties to re-evaluate their feelings towards one another, where financial compensation is less likely to be appropriate.’

This view was reinforced by case study organisations. At the Ministry of Justice, mediation is considered to be an especially effective mechanism for dealing with workplace relationship breakdowns, ‘interpersonal conflict… when people don’t communicate and the gap gets wider and wider, and things get more and more difficult’.

A host of issues can give rise to tensions at work, including arguments over personal possessions, personal space, or the use and misinterpretation of language and behaviours.

• Bullying and harassment

The other issues particularly suited to mediation are bullying and harassment, and perceived discrimination issues, although each situation needs to be judged on a case-by-case basis, as serious cases of bullying and harassment, and clear cases of discrimination, may need to be dealt with by more formal procedures.

• When managers are not well placed to deal with the issue

Mediation can also provide a useful tool for individuals to turn to when managers are, for one reason or another, not well placed to deal with a dispute. This may be because an intervention from a manager may be perceived as biased, or as favouring one side over another. It may be that the manager has insufficient skills in handling people conflict or ‘emotional anger’.

Discipline and grievance procedures

In some organisations mediation is written into formal discipline and grievance procedures as an optional stage. Where this is not the case, it is useful to be clear about whether the discipline and grievance procedure can be put into abeyance if mediation is deemed to be an appropriate method of resolving the dispute.

It is grievances that most obviously lend themselves to the possibility of mediation. Managers may not always see it as appropriate to surrender their discretion in relation to disciplinary issues where they believe a point of principle is at stake, such as misconduct or poor performance. However, the line between disciplinary and grievance issues may in specific instances become blurred, in which case the employer may prefer to tackle the underlying relationship issues by means of mediation rather than impose a disciplinary sanction.

Although mediation is often perceived as a form of early intervention in disputes, it can also be used to rebuild relationships after a member of staff has undergone a disciplinary or grievance process.

The Business benefits

According to the 2008 CIPD survey on workplace mediation, the main benefit in using mediation is improving relationships between individuals, cited by 83% of respondents. The other most common benefits include:

•                      reducing or eliminating the stress involved in using more formal processes (71%)

•                      retaining valuable employees (63%)

•                      reducing the number of formal grievances raised (57%)

•                      developing an organisational culture that focuses on managing and developing people (55%)

•                      avoiding the cost of defending employment tribunal claims (49%)

•                      reducing sickness absence (33%)

•                      being able to maintain confidentiality (18%).

Our thoughts affect our feelings, and these feelings trigger our reactive behaviour. This can happen both positively and negatively. Triggers are the events, situations and people that create strong emotional behaviours in us; rage, frustration, fear and intimidation etc. The extent of the reaction depends on a number of factors but they initiate from the thoughts we have of ourselves and/or the other person. These thoughts need a trigger for them to turn into a strong emotional reaction that leads to our reactive behaviours. These reactions may take less than a few seconds to occur but they stem from past experiences that create the mechanism for our actions.

EXAMPLE

You work in IT support and you feel that most people should be able to fix problems for themselves and not bother you with trivial things. This afternoon is the fourth time you’ve visited this colleague for the same fault and you’re sure his problems are of his own making as he’s been fiddling with the system. You are angry and you snap at him when he accuses you of not fixing it right in the first place.

If you were to manage the above situation more effectively you would have to find a way of breaking the pattern that you have built up within yourself. You would need to do one of the following

1.  Avoid the situation that causes the trigger – difficult in this case as it’s your job to deal with faults

2.  Control the thoughts that create the triggers – i.e. realise that not everyone is able to fix problems and what may seem trivial to you is important to them

3.  Manage the emotions – tell yourself that you will not get angry if confronted by this person again

4.  Change your behaviour to your triggers – ensure that you do not snap in this situation in the future

Think of a situation in which you felt one of the following emotions: rage, anger, frustration, irritation, fear, anxiety, inhibited, intimidated or embarrassment. Next, try to identify the thoughts you have about this situation or person that produced these strong emotional reactions. Then identify the triggers needed to produce this reaction and finally what behaviour results from this. Finally, to better control your reactions, identify which part of the reaction you would need to modify for you to be able to manage the situation more effectively.

Study the following dialogue between two department’s heads.

Russ MacDonald is the sales manager and John Gale is the production manager of a company that makes boxes for agricultural produce. Russ met John in his office late one Monday evening and the following conversation took place:

Russ MacDonald: “We’ve just got a big order from Topco. They said they must have it delivered by next Friday otherwise they will go elsewhere.”

John Gale: “We are not geared to take a big order by next Friday. All the machines have been set up and it will take a lot of time to reset them.”

R M: “Yes, but I have been chasing Topco for a long time. This is the first big order they have given us.”

JG: “That may be so but you should have found out if we could do the job before you went off making wild promises. There’s no way we can do a big order by Friday. We are fully stretched.”

R M: “You production people get me down. It takes me ages to get an order from Topco and then you are not prepared to put yourself out to supply them.”

 What caused the conflict? What signs of conflict is being demonstrated by both parties?

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What would need to happen to stop this conflict from escalating? What would need to happen for both parties to become resolving this conflict?

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