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Workplace and Organizational Services

Conflict in your organization costs time and money. It can cause stress, damage relationships, reduce productivity, and lead to high rates of staff turnover.


Clients

Our clients span both the public and private sectors, including non-profits, community organizations, post-secondary institutions, and government entities.

Workplace Conflict Mediation & Resolution

Mediation involves bringing both parties in a conflict together to discuss their issues and develop their own resolutions. Here is the process we typically follow for workplace mediation.
Pre-Mediation
Our conflict mediation process starts with gathering information about the situation. We first connect with the responsible manager of those involved in the conflict to get an overview of the situation.

Next, we reach out to each individual involved for a one-on-one pre-mediation meeting. This meeting allows us to explain the mediation process, address any questions, and hear each person's perspective on the situation.

Mediation is completely confidential. Part of the pre-mediation meeting involves having participants sign our Mediation Agreement. This document explains that: After the pre-mediation meeting, we schedule a time and place for the actual mediation with both people.
Mediation
Mediation takes place in a safe, private location, typically outside of the workplace. Both individuals are welcome to bring representation, though the actual discussion will be between the two parties directly involved in the conflict.

During the mediation, each person will describe the situation from their perspective. We encourage honesty and respect throughout the process.

All participation in mediation is entirely voluntary. Employees can leave the session at any time.

Often, conflicts stem from misunderstandings that cause hurt and resentment, growing over time. By addressing the root of the conflict, both parties can move past their anger, understanding their own roles and the other person's perspective.
Resolution
Simply clearing up misunderstandings is usually not enough to prevent future conflicts.

During mediation, we explore potential solutions or agreements to prevent further conflict. For instance, if hearsay and rumors have been part of the issue, both parties might agree not to discuss the other person when they are not present.

In mediation, both individuals brainstorm ideas to resolve their issues and prevent new conflicts from arising. We encourage all ideas, then refine the best ones into a set of viable and sustainable agreements.

After the mediation session, the agreement serves as a useful guide for the two employees to stay on track. If problems arise, they can refer to the document to remind themselves of the resolutions they chose and agreed to follow.
Followup Mediation Sessions
In some cases, workplace conflicts have been escalating for many years—sometimes even decades. Resolving such deep-seated issues in a single mediation session may not be possible.

What began as a single misunderstanding may have compounded over time with numerous additional hurtful incidents, obscuring the true root cause of the conflict.

If employees find that their resolutions are insufficient to prevent further conflict after one mediation session, it is likely that the root of the problem has not been fully addressed. In these instances, a follow-up mediation session may be necessary to thoroughly resolve the issue.  

Mediation