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Mediation - when and how might it help your Organisation?

From time to time two or more individuals seem to get into extreme difficulties with each other and find it virtually impossible to work effectively if at all together.
This may have been caused by something that one or both people said to or about each other that they may have done or not done to each other, by a lack of trust or respect or by a combination of these factors. It could just be lack of personal chemistry between people that leads them to dislike them intensely.
One potential solution is to move one of the antagonists to another job or depertment in the Organisation but this may not always be feasible or practical.
When issues like this arise within teams in the workplace it can be destructive and harmful to the people directly concerned and it often also affects the staff in the broader team and if not managed carefully can have an impact on their performance and even leak out onto clients or customers.
There is no perfect time for a manager to act to help resolve these personal issues but the rule of thumb is the earlier the better. The question for you as a line manager is about when and also how to intervene? If you intervene in such a way that it appears you are taking sides then this will not be well received. That you have intervened at all may not be well received by the parties involved anyway.
However for you not to intervene when the difficulties are obvious and are impacting on others inside or outside your team is a sign of weak management and may be labelled as such by those who think that you should just step in and sort things out.
However we know that it is extremely difficult to step into a dispute situation and to impose an external solution onto people that will last and be effective. You have to find a piece of middle or new ground that people can identify with and are ready to move onto. You need to encourage them to let go of something from he past that has contributed to the problem. It is possible that you, the manager, are part of the problem or have contributed to it in some way. In any event it will be difficult for you to remain dispassionate, objective and evenly balanced about things.
Consequently it is often in these sorts of situations that an external person is brought in to mediate and who brings the following attributes to the situation:-
- they look at things from an external perspective
- they are objective and unbiased
- they favour neither party
- they don’t have a past with either party
- there only future investment is to help the 2 parties to understand and resolve their differences and to move on
- they are skilled listeners, observers and questioners
- they are capable of highlighting issues and to help those involved to find a positive way forward
- they are skilled communicators

If you are facing these sorts of relationship difficulties between your members of staff then why not consider bringing in an experienced external mentor to help them to resolve things? It will probably pay off significantly in the long run through the improved satisfaction, motivation and performance of your team.