In their professional lives people are increasingly expected to deal with tricky or challenging situations as a routine part of their work. Mediating differences between colleagues or with clients, encouraging teams to work together, negotiating sensitive issues and even resolving disputes. These are just some of the tasks we are expected to handle with confidence and flair.
Mediation is an increasingly popular approach to resolving disputes. By working collaboratively to by-pass confrontation and enabling disputants to maintain a respectful working relationship mediation can help ensure that . By seeking a “win-win” solution, acceptable to both sides, mediation promotes better understanding among disputants. It also costs less, results in more lasting agreements than litigation, and can be used for emotionally sensitive disputes where other forms of conflict resolution are inappropriate.
- Introductions, needs and expectation
- Goals for the course, self monitoring and plans for consolidation
- Conflict, disputes and disagreement; what the process commonly involves
- The relationship first, results second
- Building rapport, verbal and non-verbal strategies
- 10 keys to resolving conflict
- The four ‘default modes’ of people under pressure
- Personal skills inventory; identification of existing competencies
- Remaining creative; thinking past the obstacles
- Goal setting and measuring progress
- Distinguishing players from non-players
- Encouraging a collaborative stance
- Reducing the risk of escalation
- Developing the mediation model
- Boundaries on difficult behaviour
- Remaining resourceful under pressure
- Removing obstacles and remaining solution focused
- What could go wrong?
Understand how to make interventions most acceptable
Build productive working relations even with alienated individuals
Adopt a no blame, solution-focused stance in all interactions
Help protagonists discuss and set their own goals
Align differences of opinion in a non-destructive way
Assess the gravity of any given situation as seen by the protagonists
Initiate dialogue to start the dispute resolution process
Balance individual and organisational interests.