Supervisor-Led Mediation

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Supervisor-LedMediation
Listening, Reflecting, Resolving
Tony Newport - Presenter
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• Companies and institutions are plagued with
  internal politics
• If helpers dont know whats in the shadows,
  they are naïve.
• If they believe that shadow-side realities win
  out more often than not, they are cynical.
• Helpers should be neither naïve nor cynical.
• Rather they should pursue a course of upbeat
  realism.
• Gerald Egan, The Skilled Helper. 5th ed 1994

Newport Wildman Listening, Reflecting,
Resolving
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Upbeat Realism 1

• In a perfect world a skilled mediator is readily
  available and totally independent.
• In the workplace at the early stages of a
  conflict we simply need someone who is acceptable
  to the conflicting parties.
• A supervisor who has the trust of his or her
  staff is a realistic place to start.

Newport Wildman Listening, Reflecting,
Resolving
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Upbeat Realism 2

• Often supervisors and managers do attempt to
  mediate.
• They tend to do so when conflicting parties are
  primarily focussed on convincing the supervisor
  of the rightness of their cause and when the
  parties are most inclined to utilise both
  attacking and defensive behaviours.
• Manipulative behaviour can be nullified.
  Listening and assertiveness skills can be
  modelled and taught in a supervisor-led mediation
  process.

Newport Wildman Listening, Reflecting,
Resolving
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Upbeat Realism 3

• Slings and arrows hurt.
• Concerns and issues need to be articulated and
  heard however if those in conflict are allowed to
  direct long-winded and whining complaints towards
  each other the process becomes dogged with
  negativity.
• These concerns can be mediated through the
  supervisor - separately in caucus with each
  participant they do not have to be directed at
  each other at any time.

Newport Wildman Listening, Reflecting,
Resolving
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Upbeat Realism 4

• Rescuing is a pathological helping condition.
• The roles of both supervisor and mediator are to
  support parties to be responsible.
• This means the parties must identify their needs
  before you can successfully bring them together.
• Youre not fixing it you are helping them to
  fix it.

Newport Wildman Listening, Reflecting,
Resolving
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Upbeat Realism 5

• We need an agreed agenda.
• When conflicting parties come together having
  agreed on what they are going to discuss and
  having cleaned up their language you have a
  fighting chance.
• This is the kind of on-the-job learning that has
  the potential to transform entire workplace
  cultures.

Newport Wildman Listening, Reflecting,
Resolving
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Upbeat Realism 6

• Expect things to go wrong.
• Mediators can mentor.
• Having a professional mediator on call can make
  all the difference in motivating supervisors to
  mediate or to simply help out if you get stuck.

Newport Wildman Listening, Reflecting,
Resolving
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Upbeat Realism 7

• Not all conflicts can be mediated.
• Sometimes an independent mediator is best.
• Some conflicts such as bullying and poor team
  skills - need to be performance managed first.

Newport Wildman Listening, Reflecting,
Resolving