When it comes to settling conflicts, there are any number of ways to reach a resolution.
Whether you’re dealing with divorce proceedings, workplace conflicts, legal disputes or another type of disagreement, mediation has many benefits to for finding solutions for conflicts.
Conflicts arise in many areas of life, but perhaps one of the biggest is in the workplace. Consider for a moment the following:
- A typical office manager spends at least one or two days a week (between 25 and 40%) dealing with workplace conflicts.
- American employees spend at least two hours a week engaged in some kind of conflict. Believe it or not, wasting time in conflict costs money; about $359 billion in hours paid that are spent in conflict rather than on productivity.
- At least 60 percent of employees have never taken conflict management lessons or classes.
- In 2016 alone, more than 90,000 workplace discrimination charges were filed in the United States.
With so much potential for conflict in the workplace, the following mediation tips can help to bring about solutions to problems and promote a healthy work environment.
- Staying calm: One of the biggest reasons that conflicts go on longer than they should is because they escalate. One person gets angry at another person, the other person gets angry, yelling ensues and before you know it a full-blown conflict has arisen.
Keeping calm in situations like this can be extremely beneficial. While it can sometimes be difficult, keeping calm allows those involved in a conflict to see the bigger picture. With all that goes on in a our daily lives, it helps to ask “Is this worth getting angry about?” Trying to reach a resolution sooner rather than later eliminates conflict and lets people get on with their lives and more important worries. - Listening and Understanding: In many workplace conflicts, it’s likely that one or multiple people aren’t really listening to those they have conflict with. When disputes happen, people will stop listening more often than not because they only want their viewpoint heard.
The best way to bring a solution to a conflict is for those in dispute to listen to what one another is saying. By actively listening, people may find they have very similar points of view and can more or less agree with one another.
By getting angry, people are using defense mechanisms to cover for the fact they are hurt or afraid. One of the best things people can do in a conflict is to actively listen and hear the other person out. Let them vent. Listening and listening to understand what the issue is will help bring an end to a conflict and hopefully establish trust between those in dispute. - Staying positive: As previously stated, it’s likely that people involved in a dispute can find some common ground. Finding common ground is helpful because it allows people to be able to empathize with one another. Finding common ground helps to normalize a situation and can help to calm people down because they realize they aren’t the only ones feeling a certain way. Calm and understanding will help bring an end to conflicts faster.
For managers dealing with conflicts in the workplace and workplace disputes, having the proper training can be very beneficial for reducing conflict.
That’s especially true of enneagram and negotiation training. What is the enneagram? Simply stated, it’s a explanation of human psyche, which is explained as an interconnected model of nine distinct personality types.
The characteristics of the nine personalities are:
- Perfectionist
- Giver
- Achiever
- Individualist
- Investigator
- Loyalist
- Enthusiast
- Challenger
- Mediator
Using the enneagram model can help an office manager or workplace team identify the personalities of those they work with and as such they can also identify strengths of the team.
Getting enneagram and negotiation training can help office managers build rapport with their staffs, help reduce conflict and increase productivity.
Enneagram and negotiation training also helps to encourage workplace diversity and gives office managers a tool to help maximize the potential of each one of their employees.
Another benefit or enneagram and negotiation training is that office managers can use it to plot a path of personal development for their employees and greater goals for their team as a whole.
With proper manager and employee mediation training, employees can cut down on conflict by communicating better, listening to understand and finding common ground to find solutions rather than problems.