Topic 1.3.1 Meetings to Deal with Conflict

DEALING WITH CONFLICT IN MEETINGS

Introduction

  • What are some common causes of conflict in the workplace, and how do they typically impact team dynamics?
  • How do you usually approach a conflict when it first arises? Do you prefer to address it directly or take some time to reflect?
  • What are some strategies you find helpful for managing emotions during a disagreement?
  • What are the key qualities of a good mediator in a conflict situation?
  • Have you ever had to resolve a conflict with someone in a higher position? How did you handle it?

1a. Reading

  1. In pairs decide on some common causes of conflict between people in the workplace today according to the blog post.
  2. What are the four key roles of a mediator?
  3. What skills are important for mediators?

BLOG POST

MEDIATION SKILLS – AN ESSENTIAL SOFT SKILLS COMPETENCE

 

Mediation is becoming more popular as people search for help to resolve conflicts. But why is this and how can mediation skills help?

Working life is increasingly stressful. Workloads have increased. Companies are undergoing constant change. Cross-cultural differences create challenges. No wonder that research indicates conflict at work is increasing.

Mediation, as an alternative to formal legal processes, is a collaborative process in which individuals meet to talk about conflict and find agreement. Individuals are often asked to attend both separate and joint meetings with a mediator who ensures participants can express their views and feelings on safety. In the 1:1 meeting, the mediator seeks to understand the issue and to challenge negative assumptions to understand each other. In later joint meetings, the mediator enables individuals to understand each other and find solutions. Excellent listening and summarising skills are vital for mediators to inspire people to communicate constructively.

1b.Do you think you would make a good mediator? Why/Why not?

Listening

2a. Susan Wright is Global Head of Sales for AIV, a furniture retailer based in Toronto. Two of her team members, Carmen González, Head of Europe, and Paul Aristy. Head of Asia-Pacific are in conflict. Susan has asked Barry Roche, Head of Marketing, to step in and informally mediate. Barry knows both Carmen and Paul. Listen to a telephone conversation between Barry and Carmen and answer the questions.

  1. What is Paul asking for that is causing Carmen to feel frustrated?
  2. Why is this request from Paul problematic for Carmen?
  3. Carmen feels that Paul’s way of communicating is also ‘a problem’. In what way?

 

2b.How effectively do you think Barry handles the conversation? Why?

2c. Based on the conversation, what do you feel the problem might be between Carmen and Paul? Why?

3a.[Audio 7.5] Listen to the call that Barry makes to Paul and answer the questions.

  1. What is Paul’s reason for sending the recent emails to Carmen?
  2. How does Paul interpret Carmen’s responses to his emails?
  3. What does Barry suggest to Paul may be the problem?

3b.How effectively do you think Barry handles the call? Why?

4a.[Audio 7.6] Listen to the meeting between Barry, Carmen and Paul and answer the questions.

  1. What does Barry say is the key objective to the meeting?
  2. What does Barry identify as the reason for Paul’s frustration?
  3. What does Carmen say is her biggest frustration?
  4. What does Barry have to remind Carmen about at one point?
  5. Carmen finally understands Paul’s motivation when she says, ‘Yes, I understand. I see better now’. How does Barry help her to understand?
  6. What solution to build better collaboration do they agree on in the end?

4b.At one point, Barry tells Carmen, ‘It’s not about truth but feelings’. How useful do you think such a statement is? Why?

Useful Language

5b.Now, match the extracts from the recording with the correct part of the model in the following chart.

A MEDIATION MODEL 1. Clarifying the mediator role
10 KEY STEPS 2. Stressing common objectives
3. Identifying and sticking to ground rules
4. Discovering individual views
5. Forcing people to listen to each other
6. Challenging perceptions
7. Confirming the perceived point of conflict
8. Exploring solutions
9. Proposing a way forward
10. Summarising the final agreement

 

5c.Can you think of any more useful mediation expressions?

Roleplays

6a.Work in groups of three. Roleplay a mediation between colleagues. There are three scenarios. Each person will take the role of mediator once.

6b.Take a few minutes to prepare, then roleplay your mediations. When you have finished each mediation, discuss what went well and what could be improved. In particular, confirm if you used all the steps from the mediation model and discuss how effective they were.

STUDENT A STUDENT B STUDENT C
Mediation 1: Mediator Mediation 1: Björn Haglund Mediation 1: Jenny Fischer
You are an external consultant and have been asked to support and mediate between a project team member (Björn Haglund) and the project team leader (Jenny Fischer), who are in conflict regarding a holiday request. Björn wants to go on holiday and fulfil the dream of a lifetime travelling to Africa to do volunteering. He is adamant that Jenny promised last year this would be possible for him to do. Now she is refusing to grant the request and Björn is close to resigning. Jenny’s boss, Kevin Jones, has asked a mediator to step in to resolve the situation. The legal situation means Jenny does not have to grant the request, but many similar requests in recent years have been granted. You really want to take three months off this summer to complete a personal goal (volunteering in Africa). You brought this up with your boss (Jenny Fischer) last year for the first time, at which point you were told it would be possible. One week ago, however, you got a very cold response. Your boss is clearly not happy about your request for extended leave, and is saying the department workload is simply too high to allow such requests. For you, this is the chance of a lifetime, and you believe the life skills you will learn will make you a better person and improve you as a working professional. You don’t want to delay your plans because after this summer your son will be starting an important phase of exams at school and will need your support. You know that you are a highly valued employee. You feel that all your hard work and excellent results over the last two years should create some flexibility on this issue from your company. You feel your boss is being deliberately uncooperative and is jealous of your dream. One of your team (Björn Haglund) wants to take a three-month break from work in order to complete a personal goal (volunteering in Africa). He brought this up last year when the workload was light, and it seemed feasible at that time. However, since last year, two other members of staff have left, and along with additional budget cuts, the team’s workload is now extremely high and everyone is under a lot of stress. You think that allowing Björn to take an extended period off work for ‘fun’ is going to give out the wrong messages to other colleagues. You are also under pressure from your own manager to meet targets, and you haven’t taken time off work yourself for the past six months. Björn’s attitude about being told he can’t go has come across as rude and disrespectful. He doesn’t seem to understand the realities of the situation. However, firing Björn would also likely affect the morale of other team members. You really need a solution that satisfies the whole team in some way, and one thought is for Björn to postpone his trip for a couple of years.
STUDENT A STUDENT B STUDENT C
Mediation 2: Martin Kask Mediation 2: Mediator Mediation 2: Hans Linhammer
You are a senior programmer in a platform development company, and have participated in and led many successful projects. You find your manager, Hans Linhammer, to be a weak and ineffective leader. Meetings are basically a series of small talk discussions. He clearly has little oversight of the project, and is unable to take decisions which need to be taken, meaning the project is slowly falling behind schedule. You have tried to deal with him honestly and openly, but he is very sensitive and takes things too personally, another sign of poor leadership. You are thinking of leaving the project and know of another company that would pay you more, although you’d have to commute longer to work. You are the Senior Director of an IT company. You have been asked to mediate in a conflict between a Project Manager, Hans Linhammer, and one of his team members, Martin Kask. Hans and Martin are finding it almost impossible to work together. Hans sees himself as a modern leader who empowers team members to perform well, showing trust in people’s ability to perform complex tasks. Martin sees Hans as incompetent and lacking the technical expertise to run the project. They are both involved in a very strategic project for the company, and it is important both can be remotivated to work together. You are a successful project manager, with many years of experience in the IT field. You see yourself as a progressive leader who works not by command but by collaboration and freedom, giving trust and space for team members to explore and fulfil their roles. You do not believe in giving too much direction because you want to inspire independent thinking. You think colleagues respect you, but your relationship with Senior Programmer, Martin Kask, is almost non-existent. You find him rude. You also find him uncollaborative and lacking in entrepreneurialism, always waiting to be told what to do. You know he has been saying bad things about you to colleagues. However, he is technically good and extremely useful for the project.
STUDENT A STUDENT B STUDENT C
Mediation 3: Michaela Faraday Mediation 3: Fernando Bianchi Mediation 3: Mediator
You are an R&D specialist based in New York, regularly working alongside the Customer Service department’s Fernando Bianchi who was transferred from the Brazil Sales office last year. You have become very frustrated with Fernando over the last couple of months with what you see as a lack of professionalism – constantly wasting time in meetings with irrelevant small talk, spending too much time focusing on project budget and profit, and generally lacking commitment to the project itself. He still seems to be heavily involved with his former Sales role. You also reckon Fernando lacks the necessary scientific background to analyse consumer data, and believe it would be better if he left the project. You work in the Customer Services department of the New York office of an international corporation. You were transferred from the Brazil office after having worked there in the Sales department for five years. Currently you are very busy on an international project supporting R&D to develop a new online customer service tool. Michaela Faraday, your project colleague from R&D, is clearly a technical expert, but she lacks experience of working directly with customers. You think that there’s a major risk that the project will be hijacked by discussions around scientific logic instead of focusing on genuine customer needs and quality. You are a people person – you like to talk things through in meetings in detail and believe in forming close relationships at work. You find working with Michaela very difficult – she seems naïve, direct and more obsessed with data and processes than other people’s interests. A colleague has asked you to step in and mediate between Michaela Faraday, an R&D specialist based in New York, and Fernando Bianchi, who works in the Customer Service department, having been transferred from the Brazil Sales office last year. Michaela has become very frustrated with Fernando over the last couple of months with what she sees as a lack of professionalism – constantly wasting time in meetings with irrelevant small talk, delivering late, and not spending enough time analysing risk in the project – and the fact that he is still seemingly occupied with his Sales role. Fernando sees himself as committed to the corporation. He believes in forming strong relationships with colleagues at work, and also focuses more on quality rather than deadlines, which means he will deliver tasks late if he believes he needs more time to achieve the right quality. Fernando finds Michaela naïve, direct and impolite, lacking in customer focus and obsessed with scientific data.

Anterior Lección
Volver a la Lección
Siguiente Tema