Mediation Services
Recent University of Melbourne study of 50 high profile crises in Australia and New Zealand (2007), uncovered some disturbing results . . .
Between 43% and 49% of organisations took more than 6 months to return to their pre-crisis reputation and staff morale levels respectively. Within 12 months of the crisis, 11% of board members, 13% of CEO's and 25% of senior managers had resigned (figures climbed above the 50% mark for financial organisations) Criminal charges were laid in 9% of cases.
‘Our study highlights the critical importance of the mediation process between Board members, the CEO and Senior executives during a crisis event.’
– Victor Del Rio, Melbourne University Quantitative Study of CEOs in Corporate Crises.
Our former CEO Mediators can assist you decrease this high risk if an external crisis event strikes. We can also assist your senior talent handle internal crises and restore work relation balance.
Artful Mediation, Constructive Conflict Resolution
In The Executive Suite
Unresolved conflict is “a time bomb without a clock. No one can safely handle the time bomb or predict when it will explode. Organizations spend enormous time, energy and money cleaning up messes created after long ignored or hidden issues erupt.”
The solution can be found in applying ‘interest-based negotiation’ using a third-party unbiased trained mediator.
This approach steps outside of the powerful default decision-making styles of most executives and separates the people from the problem.
Done well, the process provides a safety valve for resolution of difficult inter-personal disputes. This is a valuable resource to have on hand. It is yet another appropriate tool to be applied from the board-room to the executive suite and below.
Sample Problem
In their paper, Is Silence Killing your Company? (Harvard Business Review May 2003) Perlow and Williams argue that: ‘ . . . in organisations ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations . . . silence can exact a high psychological price on individuals, generating feelings of humiliation, pernicious anger, resentment and the like that, if unexpressed, contaminate every interaction, shut down creativity and undermine productivity’.
This so-called Spiral of Silence can emanate from the top-down or from the bottom-up. Highly intelligent and well-intended senior people may be reluctant to see in their own behaviour a rejection of suggestions they find uncomfortable coming from their subordinates. Whereas those very subordinates may feel that they are jeopardising their career progression if they speak up and are seen to ‘rock the boat’.
Clearly, an environment needs to be created in which those in conflict can safely address the issues, be assured of confidentiality and with the further assurance of an independent facilitator, expose the issues and discover resolutions that all the parties can work with.
In most cases – certainly in those at senior levels, this function cannot be adequately or appropriately undertaken within the HR function because there is generally a reporting relationship or perhaps a conflict of interest as they may be part of the matter and one of the parties in conflict.
Solution
iMentor-pro offer a unique service – executive business-mentors who are accredited mediators trained in conflict resolution within the sphere of the executive suite and the direct reporting lines into the top-team environment. Singularly or often in co-mediation, these mediators explore the issues between individuals and teams. In confidential discussions, they work with the teams to find solutions to the issues that they can all live with. Within this framework, provision is made for one-on-one confidential discussions between the mediator and the individuals who have issues. The mediator seeks to help each individual identify options for dealing with the issue directly should it or others arise in the future.
In this way, the Spiral of Silence is replaced by a Virtuous Circle with immediate beneficial effect on the team and on the business. As the participants become used to talking to each other about difficult issues within a teamed framework, the leadership team can address future issues and prevent them becoming impediments to progress.
All of our mediators are former senior executives or CEO’s with outstanding credentials. Where individual clients prefer individual representation within the mediation we offer co-mediation. This style of mediation is also useful for large or complex matters.
Should the task warrant specialist expertise, we have access to some of Australia’s best qualified and experienced mediators with broad ranging backgrounds and subject-expertise. Just ask.
iMentor-pro Mediators
- Anna Booth – Advanced Mediation, Dept of Law, Bond University
- Michael Donovan – Accredited and Member Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators, Australia
- David Lawrence – Accredited and Member Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators, Australia
- David Stephens – LEADR trained and Member of Leading Edge Alternate Dispute Resolution