Katherine talks to Jenny Chapman, Editor of the Cambridge Business Monthly magazine, about early resolution of negative conflict at work, running CMP and some anonymised horror stories!

“I remember that horrible feeling going to work with a fight brewing here and conflict there and not liking a person, but we don’t have to go to work feeling sick and anxious, work should be where we get to be our best selves.”

“…really excited about mediation – I have done hours on the couch – and the beautiful thing is you finally get to have conversations with other people, talk to them and be yourself in the mediation… and you don’t have to be the brightest person there. ”

“The NHS is an example of where there are a lot of horror stories, and this is usually because there is a middle bit that has not dealt with things sooner.”

“…passionate about running a business, to help other people be human beings, and we are a really nice company and I’m proud of that.”

“A man and a woman in the same company were coming up for retirement and had stopped speaking to one another, which was going to be awkward during the year they had left. It turned out they had put together a business plan for their retirement… to set up a brothel…”

“…there was the father-in-law managing a small firm where his son-in-law also worked. The son-in-law was having an affair… the father-in-law became very, very angry; but the son-in-law was saying it was none of the father-in-law’s business…”

“…a man was promoted from manager to director and a woman got his old job. She thought he thought she was incompetent and tension between the teams got really bad. Everything turned when I said in mediation to the man could he say something positive about her. His face looked non-plussed, and then he reeled off all the things she was good at. It had been her own fantasy, but feelings moved from blame to affirmation”