"My colleague and I were locked in a power struggle for over a year. It got so bad that I would spend my evenings and weekends trying to recover the strength to return to the office--I really wanted to quit! The mediation we did astounded us both--after just three sessions we are working as a team in a way we never did before. We understand each other's default positions and we actually help each other out when one of us falters. As senior managers we were negatively infecting the entire division--and now we infect it with our teamwork!" Senior Manager, Energy Company
Conflict Facilitation/Mediation
Mediation is a voluntary process where a caring yet neutral third party facilitates dialogue toward resolution between people in conflict. The mediator provides a context of safety where people with differences--small or large, cool or intensely heated-- have the opportunity to resolve their issues.
At Workplace Connections we use a wide variety of mediation practices including an integral approach that can go deeper into assessing internal and systemic issues for the clients when that is appropriate. Through strategic questioning, extremely skilled translating of emotions and meaning, and a variety of facilitation practices, we create an environment that encourages those in conflict to drill down to the core needs that often go undetected and unaddressed when emotions escalate.
Over and over again we witness the shape of a conflict changing as people are encouraged to speak from their deep truth. It is here, in an atmosphere of utmost safety, that even intransigent and long-standing conflicts are often resolved. The resolutions of such conflicts are often a creative surprise to all of the parties involved, as each person learns to see the other not as enemy, but on the same side, looking at the problem as resolvable in a spirit of collaboration.
