Changing Conflict-Negative Culture
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From the CMP Resolution Blog of John Crawley, Lesley Allport and Katherine Graham. January 2011 |
Create a measure to calculate the cost of conflict and ROI of mediation
In ‘ Nudge’ Thaler and Sunstein mention how a ‘reference point’ can help people improve the way they make difficult decisions, and reduce the impact of ‘social contagion’ in which people just follow the popular choice, without really applying a critical eye to the situation. CMP Resolutions have devised a simple tool to measure the cost and scale of unresolved workplace conflict which will give you a very powerful reference point to remove any complacency around your difficult conflict management decisions. It clearly shows the lost productivity caused by workplace conflict in your workplace, and can calculate the cost benefit of mediation and effective dispute resolution. This will generate tangible and local evidence to change resolutions decisions and culture. Create organisational targets or health indicators which give advantage to those organisations who choose mediation
Once you have the direction of travel towards effective dispute resolution why not set your people and your organisation targets. This would incentivise organizations and key stakeholders like HR, the Unions and managers to see, for example, mediation as ‘proper work’ properly rewarded. Measures of organisational health could include use of levels of complaints and use of mediation as an indicator.
Positioning mediation awareness and knowledge in managerial competencies
This is a nudge which has already been used successfully in some sectors when dispute resolution and conflict management skills and competencies are introduced to core competencies. As a minimum all managers need to know enough about mediation to talk any prospective party through the process and talk about its benefits. Ideally CMP also recommends mediation skills as essential for team leaders. At the top end, mediation skills are proving to be a huge asset to senior managers in changing times.
Identify a key resistant group and deliver a tough targeted message from careful chosen influencers.
This involves mobilising people who may appeal to a particularly resistant group. The example in ‘Nudge’ is the ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’ campaign which aimed to reduce littering and was targeted at young men and delivered by the popular Dallas Cowboys. Who delivers the message and how is critical.
Model mediation values and behaviours at senior level
Reports on managing bullying at work have commented on the influence which behaviours from senior level staff have on what is perceived as acceptable – where the ‘zero’ in zero tolerance is set. A consistent message coming from the highest levels advocating mediation would have a powerful impact.
Reward excellence
CMP Resolutions is looking to jointly sponsor awards for excellence in workplace dispute resolution. It maybe that excellence in nudging could be one category.
Biography
John Crawley is the Founder and Chair of CMP Resolutions and has been working in organisations who are experiencing conflict for the last 20 years. He has acquired a unique range of conflict narratives illustrating what works and what does not. John developed and utilised the model of Constructive Conflict Management encouraging people at work to handle differences early. This model also advocated a range of dispute resolution processes including mediation and arbitration. In 1989 John set up Conflict Management Plus (now CMP Resolutions) the first holistic conflict management services and training provider in the UK. CMP specializes in developing emotional and psychological capital around conflict, so that people will have greater resources should conflicts resurface in the future. In 2002 John developed Interactive Mediation™ with Katherine Graham launched in Mediation for Managers (since published in Holland, Thailand, the US, China and Russia.) John was subject expert on a BBC worldwide video on this subject, and has trained over 3000 people in conflict management and mediation skills in the last 20 years. He has been imbedded as a conflict management practitioner in varied organizations including the Prison Service, Banks, Armed Services, Airlines, Government Agencies, Police Services, Insurance companies, Medical services, Health Providers and Charities.
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