Recently we
have handled a number of cases where a manager is ‘in dispute’ with a team, or
vice versa and we have developed an interesting hybrid approach which offers
much to mediation but also to coaching.
Mediation’s strength is its ability to
encourage people to move towards common ground, rebuild communication and
resolve issues. In these team versus manager situations there are often power
issues (e.g. 5 team members v one manager) and blocking behaviours (e.g. lack
of of self awareness and destructive, habitual negative management habits)
which inhibit the success of mediation.
As many of
our consultants have a wide range of assessment, coaching, facilitation and
mediation skills they have been successfully creating a tailored process which
involves three main ingredients:
o ‘Conflict coaching’ with individuals (often
the manager) where necessary to encourage behavioural change and build
self-awareness
o Mini-mediations to build resolution and
rebuild trust
o A team mediation to reset working
relationships, reset future working and restore performance.
This
approach is particularly useful we find when a manager or particular team
member has had a series of difficult situations. All coaching services
explicitly aim for supportive and appropriate behaviour change. Coaches don’t
just listen, observe and encourage they must challenge too. Coaching is about
improvement and change. ‘Conflict coaching’ utilises a number of tried and
tested facilitation and ‘breakthrough’ techniques developed from our years of
successful work with challenging situations at work. All our practitioners are
committed to a non-blaming and constructive approach.
This hybrid
of coaching and mediation is proving successful with a range of customers and
can unstick some very blocked situations. We can, of course, also train people
in conflict-coaching skills and watch out for some new training courses in this
area.
Contact John Crawley for more information.
