Mediating Workplace Conflict

Managers, HR professionals, supervisors and team leaders have (at least) one thing in common: at some point in their careers, they’ll be asked to stand in the middle of a conflict and serve as de facto referee. When called upon to settle a conflict between two employees it’s important to have some tools at your disposal that can help you identify underlying issues, come to a workable solution and begin to restore co-worker trust.

AHL Referee by Rick Dikeman, Wikimedia Commons

Here is one such tool—a six-step process to help you mediate workplace conflict:

  1. Create a safe environment for discussion: When asked to mediate between employees, you may feel like a referee, but sorting out workplace conflict needs a little more privacy than the hockey arena and co-worker conflict should not be a spectator sport. Schedule your meeting where privacy can be assured. Before launching into the issues, establish mutually agreeable ground rules for respectful communication. In addition to affording privacy and setting the communication ground rules, you’ll also want to make it clear that your role is to help the employees talk things out and reach a mutual agreement, not to take sides.
  2. Uncover the issues: Hear each employee’s version of the situation in turn. Listen carefully for issues and make note of both common ground and inconsistencies.
  3. Clarify understanding: Ask each employee to paraphrase what they heard from the other to help identify misconceptions and misinterpretations. Make sure everyone is operating from the same understanding of concerns. For example, if one employee accuses the other of being disrespectful, ask what specific actions or behaviors were felt to be disrespectful. People have different boundaries which can sometimes be crossed unintentionally.
  4. Share impact: Ask whether both employees are willing to share and listen to the impact the situation is having on each of them? Encourage them to move past the surface issue and discuss how the situation has affected their underlying working relationship and performance. Ask both employees to share what they find most troubling and most important about the situation and why.
  5. Seek solutions: Point out areas of agreement and commonality based on the information each employee has shared. Address any misalignment of perception you may have noted while listening to their earlier discussion. Then ask one or more solution oriented questions such as:
    • What would you like to see happen now?
    • How might we resolve this to meet the needs of both of you?
    • What will it take for us to move forward?
    • What does a successful resolution look like to you?
  6. Summarize agreement and schedule follow up: Restate and confirm all points of agreement and any actions associated with them. Write out the agreement and have both employees sign it, confirming their commitment to the identified course of action. If applicable, identify points which still require discussion and set a time to continue the conversation. It’s also advisable to define a process for handling future disagreements should they arise.

Even if your conflict mediation was 100% successful and trust is fully restored, make sure you follow up with both employees, separately and together, to demonstrate your ongoing support of their working relationship and their overall wellbeing at work.

 

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