Conducting Conflict Constructively

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1st Resort Mediation

P.O. Box 2851

Castro Valley, CA   94546

 

 

 

To contact us:

Phone:   510.415.0860

E-mail:

1stResortMediation@comcast.net
Text Box: Dealing with conflict in the workplace? There are choices.

Conflict happens.  Crafting lasting solutions, on the other hand, takes skill. 

It’s easy to fall into a patterns of:

Ø avoidance,

Ø delay,

Ø confrontation,

Ø pressing your advantage (because you can … at least this time),

Ø stonewalling (because you can’t think of what else to do), or

Ø character assassination (because at least you’re doing something). 

These strategies are almost certain to guarantee that the same conflict with the same person, with the same underlying issues, will show up again and again. Perhaps it will be at a different time, in a different place or in a different form.  However, it will be there. 

Then the losses begin to pile up.  Depending on the context they may include a loss of time, money, and productivity, as well as increasing stress, lowering morale and ruining relationships. 

And then there are better choices...
Text Box: The beauty of mediation is that it is: Timely. There’s no need to wait until a conflict is out of hand. When a third party is invited in early in the process, the situation may have more available options and people may still have the good faith to be more flexible. Private and confidential. What happens in mediation, stays in mediation. The process is completely confidential and each party agrees to this in writing. Therefore the outcome, terms of the agreement, and the specifics of the process are known only to those who participated, unless all parties involved agree otherwise. In the hands of the parties involved. A mediator’s role is to keep the definition of the problem and the creation of its solution firmly grounded in the participants’ hands while facilitating the activities necessary to arrive there. She has no stake in the outcome, only in the process of reaching one that is considered to be successful by the people who crafted it. Based on the assumption that it is possible to satisfy most, if not all, of the needs of the parties involved. Negotiations that assume getting what you want is mutually exclusive from the other party realizing what they want narrows the focus of what is ultimately possible. With the help of a mediator, you create an environment where approaching the issues from a broader perspective opens up a ‘thinking outside of the box’ perspective and ultimately generates more options in problem solving. Text Box: My mission is to provide you with tools to constructively manage your conflicts.

Loretta Kuliawat, PhD

Mediator