What is Mediation?

Mediation is often used in a business setting to understand and then resolve the issues that people in a team may have with each other. It can also be that a certain team has problems with another team in the company.

Some examples would be

• Reps can have a problem with another rep in their team because he is not a team player, or he returns demo equipment in an unacceptable condition.
• Staff can have a problem with their management, either immediate or within the company.
• Managers can have an issue with one or more of the people who work for them
• Sales people can feel that Customer Support is not backing them up and that as a result, they are losing face with the customers.

There are numerous possibilities that can and do cause bad vibes, unhappy people and ultimately decreased productivity and resignations. Often the emotions in these situations have reached the point where the people involved are not able to sit down and firstly identify what the issues are and secondly resolve the issues they have with each other.

External Mediation is

• Neutral
• Confidential
• Goal directed
• Able to contain the extreme emotions but not squash them
• Fair as it allows all parties involved to air their viewpoint without being interrupted
• Respectful as name calling and swearing are not allowed
• Allows the people involved to identify the problems and then discuss lots of different ways to solve the problems
• Successful as the people involved come up with workable solutions. The solutions are not imposed
• Empowering - people get to fix what is wrong
• Energising - the energy that was used to complain about the other(s) can now be channelled into work
• Productive - management is seen to care enough to intervene and happy staff result. Happy staff are more productive