MEDIATION FAQs
What is workplace mediation?
Many of us think about litigation or warring couples when we hear the term mediation. It might sound a bit formal, serious, even foreboding.
Workplace mediation is a resource to facilitate communication and help employees resolve interpersonal conflict. We listen deeply, prompt self-reflection, and bring understanding and clarity to messy interactions. Mediation teaches assertive communication skills and illuminates how to repair damaged trust.
Doesn’t conflict get a bad rap?
Yep. Not all conflict is unproductive. In fact, conflict can be essential and necessary for forward movement and for growth and understanding.
Unfortunately, many of us fear open conflict. Or go out of our way to avoid or ignore it. Heck, some of us create it.
We help employees with the type of conflict that feels powerful, even injurious. This conflict damages trust and psychological safety between two or more employees. It feels disrespectful. It feels dismissive. It can actually feel threatening, making work miserable or impossible.
Why is mediation needed?
Whether the conflict has been lingering a long time, unresolved and festering, or it is significant and disruptive, ignoring or avoiding conflict is a poor strategy.
You've probably tried resolving the problem on your own. Managers or HR have been called in. Nothing seems to be working and the symptoms are clear:
Trust is damaged.
Collaboration is suffering
Results and productivity are threatened
Absenteeism and turnover are present
Employee stress is growing and morale is plummeting
Creativity and flow feel diminished
There is a feeling of inertia, tension, or fear
Who benefits from workplace mediation services?
Cofounders locked in tension
Leadership teams mired in fuckery
Supervisors and employees with strained relationships
Employees struggling to get along
Coworkers and customers who get ensnared in the conflict
Siloed organizations with a history of mistrust
Families running a business together
What are the benefits of workplace mediation services?
Increased clarity of concerns
Deeper understanding of conflict’s source
Facilitated conversation to repair harm and build trust
Shared sustainable solution/resolution
Path Forward Plan
Framework and skills for future disputes
Improved trust and collaboration
Can employees be forced into mediation?
No. Mediation is completely voluntary.
How does it work?
When a request for mediation is received, Radius will learn more about the nature and history of the conflict, the needs for mediation, and the organizational context within which the conflict emerged. Radius will determine if mediation is a timely, effective approach or make recommendations for other services.
There are 4 phases to the Radius Mediation process:
Individual Meetings
Facilitated Dyad Dialogue
Path Forward Planning, and
Follow-up for Modifications and Amplification
The intent of meeting with individuals separately, prior to engaging in dialogue is four-fold:
to cultivate psychological safety and interpersonal connection;
explain the mediation process;
inquire about willingness and assess readiness to engage in the dialogue and forward planning; and
listen deeply to the individual’s narrative and impact of the conflict.
Facilitating a dialogue between members of the conflict is at the heart of the mediation process. The mediator moderates the dialogue to create space for engagement, identifies moments of expanded understanding, highlights expressions of empathy and compassion, pauses the process when speaker or listener falters, ask questions for clarity, identifies openings for new narratives, promotes accountability and apologies, and makes notes for the Path Forward Plan (PFP).
When there is significant agreement among the individuals in conflict that they are ready to begin the PFP, the mediator monitors the process between individuals, with attention to equal and authentic participation; pausing to process unresolved issues that arise. The PFP is typically distilled to one page that is signed by individuals involved. Again, this is confidential to the individuals involved and does not become a part of any personnel file or evaluation.
Finally, the mediator will follow-up with each participant one week after the signed PFP for a status check; and again at 3 months with the participants. The mediator listens to the progress, setbacks and repairs, new self-awareness and growth.
we get it
Our mediators are social workers, not attorneys. Our expertise is helping clients to define the problem, communicate their needs, and design the plan that brings resolution and healing. Band aids and quick fixes don’t work, so we cultivate rigorous honesty to reveal the root of the conflict.
We get complexity. We see conflict at personal and systemic levels. We understand:
Cofounders locked in tension
Leadership teams mired in fuckery
Supervisors and employees with strained relationships
Employees struggling to get along
Family business conflict
Membership and Association dynamics
ENGAGE RADIUS WORKPLACE MEDIATION SERVICES
In the middle of conflict it’s hard to see your way through. Trust us to bring clarity and resolution.
COSTS OF UNRESOLVED CONFLICT:
Employee stress
Poor collaboration
Diminished results
Absenteeism, turnover
Lower productivity
Increased health risks
Possible legal costs
Toxic environment
BENEFITS OF MEDIATION INCLUDE:
Exploration of conflict’s source
Increased understanding of concerns
Shared sustainable solution/resolution
Pathway forward to work together
Framework for future disputes
Photo by Gregory Fullard
“One effect of sustained conflict is to narrow our vision of what is possible.”
the fine print
Our mediation services are voluntary, confidential, impartial, and expedient. We’ve adapted to virtual services during COVID-19.