Build an Internal Conflict Resolution System - Workplace Conflict

Build an Internal Conflict Resolution System - Workplace Conflict

The principles to create an effective conflict resolution system for your business or organization.

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Benefits of Conflict Resolution at Work

Here are some other benefits of conflict resolution, if conflict is effectively addressed in organizations. Also, see our blog about how conflict is good for business.

• Beyond issues of disputants, mediation services and conflict coaching can impact teams and the organization overall to help them achieve strategic goals, and ensure that goals can be realistically obtained
• Mediation services and conflict coaching can increase creativity, improve performance, collaboration (in relationships and inter-departmentally), heal and restore relationships, manage power imbalances, etc.
• Mediation services and conflict coaching can reintegrate employees and managers into workplace/team while litigation may cause too much damage
• Mediation services and conflict coaching can garner commitment to behaviour change and facilitate systemic changes
• Mediation services and conflict coaching can prevent litigation costs (including counterclaims) and associated harms (financial, emotional)

Also, be sure to see our blog on how conflict can be used to decrease business risk and promote growth within an organization. 

How to develop a conflict resolution system

So, what can you do to transform conflict into a good thing in your company or organization? Set up an internal conflict resolution system for your organization or business. Here are some tasks and/or principles to keep in mind when developing a system.

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Top 10 tips to build a conflict resolution system

1. Customization. Customize the system based on organizational and ‘people’ needs.
2. Self-responsibility. Everyone must take responsibility for their own behaviour and needs. If you have a problem, address it, do not avoid it, unless you believe you can let it go or it will help you resolve the issue in the long run. If something was said that bothered you, find out how to address it effectively. Read about having a constructive confrontation (or discussion) and how to take self-leadership and self-responsibility in conflict resolution.
3. Leadership Support. Management, HR, and Unions must encourage and support conflict resolution training and encouragement managers and employees to manage conflict in a mutually respectful way. This includes the provision of resources, human, special and financial, in order to ensure that conflict resolution is easy to access for all within the organization. Without leadership support, conflict is likely to escalate and become destructive and hard to fix (how to fix a relationship)
4. Build Team Cohesion and Trust. Ensure that you encourage all employees and managers to build personal relationships, and integrate this into a weekly agenda of activities. When things do become challenging, individuals will be more likely to have enough Trust to manage these challenges effectively. Trust will also be essential when planning, designing and delivering a program. See our blog on the Definition of Trust and Building Trust.
5. Participation: Ask for the participation of all stakeholders prior to the development of a plan for the organization.
6. Problem Solving. Encourage interdisciplinary and interdepartmental problem solving (levels of conflict). If employees and managers are given the opportunity to share concerns and brainstorm on how to resolve conflicts, the organization is more likely to gather critical data to prevent issues from hurting the organization overall. See our blog on the levels of conflict within an organization.
7. Listening and Feedback Training. Encourage active listening and how to give and receive feedback. If employees and managers are able to effectively listen to one another, they will be empowered to self-resolve many of their issues, often without the help of management and HR. This means more time spent on critical issues. Never underestimate the power of active listening.
8. Meta-communication. Make it part of your weekly routine to talk about how you communicate, how to improve interpersonal relationships, and how to address potential conflict situations (Top 10 Tips on How to Resolve Conflict).
9. Self-resolve Conflicts. In addition to training on interpersonal communication, employees and managers must be given the skills to deal with conflict before it becomes an issue. It might entail other types of training or services, such as those related to stress reduction, whereby these might improve one’s ability to better address personal issues that might lead to conflict. It might also encourage activities such as meditation and yoga in the workplace, to help people feel centered and capable of addressing issues in a healthy way. This is also covered in our blog on self-responsibility, managing anger and our self-resolution tool.
10. Change Agent. Find a mediator, conflict coach and project manager to design, build and implement your conflict resolution system. Be sure to find a mediator with years of experience in workplace conflict resolution to assist in this process. We’ve discussed some of the essential tasks and principles to keep in mind when setting up an internal conflict resolution system. However, they will be able to do a needs assessment to determine the needs of the organization, and recommend how these may be achieved. 

In summary, conflict can be used as a positive force of change in your company or organization if it is addressed effectively. Leave your recommendations and questions on the blog in the comments section below. Also, try using our web app to set up your own system. 

Best Business Ideas - Social Networking for Mediators

Best business ideas for 2015 - Social Networking for Mediators

What every mediator and conflict coach needs to know about social media networking.

1. Build bridges with social networking

Instead of simply sharing your opinion on your social networking accounts, start discussions to create engagement. You should build relationships with new colleagues and potential clients, similar to what we do on Facebook, Twitter, and our blog. . Remember, younger generations might have relationships that are completely based online. Young people are potential future clients in need. Don't be scared of competition. We are all promoting the field of mediation for the benefit of clients in need. Mediation is still underused as an alternative.

2. On the clock

Business social media is on time. To maximize your social networking efforts, launch your posts based on your audience’s usual engagement time - specific to the platform.  MediaBistro says that in general, you should post on Facebook weekdays between 6-8am, or 2-5pm, on Twitter on weekends between 1-3pm,   between 9am-11am, and on your blog Monday, Friday and Saturday at 11am. Again, this depends on your specific audience. Check on each site for information or sign up for a program such as Hootsuite.

3. Create alliances and cross-promote with new networks

Start to share with colleagues and promote with others in the field to improve reciprocation. Connect with new communities in complimentary fields. Don’t just think about your usual client base. Start to think about other communities that might benefit from your services. The more you “Retweet” or post about others, the more likely they are to do the same. Also share some private messages with them to build the relationship further. See the next section connecting in new ways.

4. Boost impact of each post

To improve search-ability and connect with new clients, use the @ symbol to share your post with particular organizations, communities and users; flagging them of your new and relevant social networking content. Use the # symbol in order to emphasize a popular theme. Search for trends on each platform and use the same words with a # symbol in front in order to get your ideas picked up by others searching for the same theme. Trend searches on Twitter are particularly useful.

5. Schedule social networking

In order to optimize your social networking outreach, make a calendar and set up reminders so that you have content ready to post, on the right platform, at the right time. This is essential to ensure a successful business social media strategy. This will also help you boost each social networking post.

6. Get noticed with your social networking ideas

People connect with powerful images, so share other user’s images or make your own. Social networking is competitive, so you need to stand out as much as you can. Be sure to add a comment with each image you post.

7. Ask for help from a social networking pro

Recruit a student from a local college or university with an interest in conflict resolution to write blogs and take care of your social networking outreach. They learn something through researching subject matter, and you have someone with the know-how, posting for your practice to improve your business. The younger generations uses social media networking as part of their daily life, so it comes naturally to them. 

8. Get the social networking app

Start using social media applications on your phone, so that when you have an idea, you can tweet about it immediately. Although you must take into account optimal timing, this is still a great way to start and respond to discussions right away. Social media networking will start to become part of your daily routine, and you will also be able to keep track of current trends in the field. For example, instead of doing nothing at a bus stop, you can post your best conflict resolution ideas.

9. Consistency over quantity

Don’t spread yourself too thin. Choose one or two social networking platforms and focus on them to maximize your Search Engine Optimization. Don’t leave inactive accounts online, or it will hurt your search engine optimization. Don’t feel bad about letting it go, if you realize you have ran out of time to give it the attention it needs. You should be posting new material each week.

Peer Mediation in Schools

Mediate2go.com: Peer Mediation in Schools

Today, we are told that lawyers need to shift and expand their roles from warriors to conflict resolvers. In fact, conflict resolution skills are not only necessary for lawyers, but they are needed as part of our basic tool box as social human beings. Conflicts are part of our daily life, whether it be at work, in our families, our institutions, our social circles, or at school. So why not learn those skills from an early age? One interesting way to do this is through peer mediation programs in schools.

Start your own peer mediation program with Mediate2go.com. It only takes minutes to get your customized directory page listed, and case management system in place. With a bit of training, you can help improve community and school relations with peer mediation.

Mediate2go.com: Peer Mediation in Schools

Programs for peer mediation in schools started appearing in the United States in the 1970s and are now quite widespread. In Canada, several programs exist as well by now. One notable example is the project by Institut Pacifique in Quebec. This community-based organization offers schools with a turnkey program, which includes materials, guides and initial training for teachers and follow-up support in order to implement their program, called Vers le Pacifique. The program is aimed at preschool and primary school levels, and it consists of two steps. Before implementing the peer-mediation program per say, the first step requires the school to offer conflict resolution workshops to the whole student body, in order to educate and develop the awareness of all students to peaceful methods of conflict resolution. Those workshops are given over a full school year. During the second year of the program, the peer-mediation program is implemented. Students from grades four to six are chosen according to a well-crafted process to be trained as mediators, and they rotate to act as mediators in the school yard for minor conflicts between their peers.

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This program by Institut Pacifique was the object of longitudinal studies by professors at the University of Montreal. Those studies found that after two years of implementation, the students exposed to the program developed improved sociocognitive abilities such as managing emotions, identifying the causes of a conflict and proposing solutions. After three years of implementation, a significant decrease in aggressive behaviour on the part of students was observed. Constant efforts to promote and support the program are needed, however, for the impacts to last through time.

It is important to note that these programs do not just aim to teach skills and techniques; they help build a positive vision of conflicts. Children learn to use dialogue as an alternative to aggressive behaviour or passivity in the face of disputes, and they also experience the positive impacts that can come from this dialogue and collaboration. Accepting conflicts as part of the human experience and harnessing them in a constructive way is a challenge that we must all step up to.

Did you experience peer mediation in your school growing up? Does your children’s school offer such program? If not, why not look into which local organisation could offer it in your area?

Start your own peer mediation program with Mediate2go.com. It only takes minutes to get your customized directory page listed, and case management system in place. With a bit of training, you can help improve community and school relations with peer mediation.

Note: A review of school mediation programs in Québec was published as part of a collection of articles on the intersection of mediation and youth published in Europe. Full reference: « La médiation en milieu scolaire au Québec : un portrait », dans Médiation et Jeunesse, Mineurs et médiations familiales, scolaires et pénales en pays francophones, sous la direction de Jean Mirimanoff, Belgique, Larcier, 2013.

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Other references:

• Roots of Empathy
• Western Justice Center
• Osgoode Mediation Center
• Mediation at McGill

Mediate2go.com Contributor:

Léa Préfontaine holds a bachelor in civil law and common law from McGill University. Prior to her legal studies, she also completed a bachelor in business and a masters in economics. She will be an articling student at the Protecteur du citoyen (Québec Ombudsman) starting in June 2014. Léa is passionnate about dispute resolution and access to justice.

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