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Conflict in the workplace is inevitable, and if managed in a healthy way, can spark new ideas, enhance processes, and strengthen organizations. If we want JoyPowered® workspaces, we need everyone on our teams to have healthy ways to address conflict. Most of the time, when employees are in conflict with one another, the best role managers and HR leaders can play is a more restrained one – giving them a framework to work through the issues themselves, or serving as a mediator to help them communicate and reach agreement.

The University of California San Diego has a helpful eight-step process for employees to work through conflict on their own. They recommend employees talk to the other person, focus on behavior and events rather than personalities, listen carefully, identify points of agreement and disagreement, prioritize areas of conflict, plan to work on each conflict, follow up on the plan, and build on their success.

When more guidance is needed, we may need to do some hands-on mediation. We suggest starting by meeting with each person separately before the first mediation session to explain what mediation is (and isn’t), understand the issue from their point of view, and probe as to why the issue is impacting them the way it is. Then, schedule the mediation meeting in as neutral a place as possible at a convenient time. Make sure you have water, coffee, or other drinks available, as well as tissues and a flip chart. Set the rules and norms at the start, and ask if the participants have any other rules or norms that they’d like to suggest.

Give each person a few minutes to share their perspective, then a few minutes to ask questions, not to argue, but to make sure they understand the other person’s point of view. Ask the participants to list what they’d like their colleague to start doing, what they’d like them to stop doing, and what they’d like them to continue doing, then walk through the lists and allow the participants to weigh in on what they’re willing to do and what they can’t or won’t do (and why). Conclude the meeting with a promise that the mediator will send them the list of commitments, give the participants an opportunity to thank each other for the discussion, and encourage them to establish a check-in date within the next couple weeks to assess how things are going.

In this episode’s listener question, we’re asked how to handle an assistant store manager who manages up to higher management well, but doesn’t have a good relationship with his direct manager or staff members. In the news, the more flexible employers are with where and when their staff members work, the easier it is to hire and retain employees.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Purple Ink
• Susan Tinder White Consulting
• JoyPowered® Memberships
• Episode 83, ”Handling Workplace Conflict”
• ”How to Handle Conflict in the Workplace” – UC San Diego
• SHRM’s Managing Workplace Conflict Toolkit
• SHRM’s Civility Starter Kit
• SHRM 2024 Talent Trends
• JoyPowered® on LinkedIn
• JoyPowered® on Instagram
• Email JoyPowered®

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