When you are in conflict with another person the effects can be devastating. You will be emotional, unable to sleep and confused about how to resolve the conflict. Therefore it may seem like a crazy idea to undertake mediation, where you will come face to face with your nemesis. However in this article, I am going to highlight the benefits of mediation and put your fears to rest, because mediation is not only a good idea, it is the best way to deal with the majority of workplace conflicts.

Mediation has a very high success rate

CMP Resolutions offers an outsourced mediation service that works to a 95% success rate for their workplace mediations. Success is based on you and the other party coming to your own agreements about how to get back on track. The benefit to you is that mediation offers the best possible chance to get your life back and to fully resolve the workplace conflict that is causing you grief. While success is measured by the agreements that are made on the day it is also important that these agreements stay in place. To give you a good idea though, 92% of CMP’s mediation agreements are still in place 3 months after the first meeting.

Mediation is more flexible than formal processes

Mediation is a voluntary way of resolving workplace conflict. Nothing is imposed upon you. The mediator will simply help you talk through what isn’t working with your current relationship and how you would like to see things improve. There is no intervention from anyone else telling you how to get along and imposing rules and guidelines on workplace relations. This makes it very different from other types of formal procedures. If your conflict escalates to a grievance or an investigation then the opportunity to heal the underlying problems will be lost. The outcome will be down to a third party to decide and will normally result in some form of punishment for one or other sides.

Mediation gives you the opportunity to speak openly

While you may be dreading the idea of speaking to the other party, it will give you the chance to explain to the other party what exactly has been upsetting you about their behaviour and how you think things could improve between you. This can feel like a great release as pent up emotions lead to more stress. Also you will get the chance to listen to the other parties’ side of the story and understand the situation from a different perspective which will help you both repair your relationship.

Mediation looks forward not backwards

A mediation session is not designed to look at past events and cast blame and look for apologies. Past events are used to highlight times where conflict has developed and to try and come up with strategies to avoid these in the future. So don’t get stuck trying to get an apology for past issues or frustrations, and don’t be distracted if the other party is being needlessly stubborn or abusive. Try and stay focused on the future and look for ways to improve workplace relations moving forward.

Whether we’re your mediators or not, you are welcome to give us a call and talk things through in confidence. We want people to make more use of this great process!