HR FORUM

Moving Beyond Mediation

Three simple steps to creating a conflict-resolving culture in your practice

when the wrong kind of conflict has taken its toll on an optometry practice, the aftermath can cause a permanent retreat to neutral zones. It is here where conflict is not resolved or managed but avoided in the extreme.

It takes practice and perseverance to build a mediating organization where conflict is kept in its healthy, creative form. How can you build this culture into your own practice?

To begin to make the transition into managing conflict strategically, every individual in the practice—from the doctor to the part-timer—has to buy into the must-have elements that constitute a mediating organization. Those elements include:

MANAGING CONFLICT

First, practice leaders, it is essential to manage all stages of transition, from the end of the conflict, where individuals are dealing with a flood of contradictory emotions, through the neutral zones, where a lack of communication can cause confusion, frustration, and avoidance.

Making choices about new structure, policies, procedures, or whatever is needed after destructive conflict has been resolved can take time. However, keeping the entire team informed and talking to one another will minimize resistance and encourage involvement and acceptance of new decisions on how the group moves forward.

Managing the neutral zone in this way ensures that the final stage of transition, often called “new beginnings,” is aligned with re-established practice values and goals, and the individuals on the team are committed to integrating any new conflict management policies and procedures into their day-to-day operating processes.

ANALYZING YOURSELF

The next step toward creating a mediating organization is to analyze what kind of organization you currently have along with what kind you want to have.

According to conflict resolution expert Dan Dana, there are three categories most organizations fall into when it comes to managing conflict:

Contesting Power



Contesting Rights



Reconciling Interests

Even small businesses, like independent O.D. practices, get caught in power challenges where solutions to conflicts are chosen based on whose positional authority takes precedence or whose employee rights are favored over those of others. More often than not, organizations will struggle to stay consistent at reconciling issues over personnel.

Take a look at how the last few conflicts (big or small) have gotten resolved in your practice to recognize the patterns and decide which of the three categories listed above is dominating in your place of business.

IMPLEMENTING CHANGE

Finally, doing such an analysis will tell you how to implement the following steps so preventative mediation becomes a daily practice that helps move the business into a consistent pattern of reconciling interests:

Separate the people from the problem/issue.



Focus on interests, not positions.



Work to find multiple scenarios for mutual gains.



Insist that agreements/solutions/results be based on objective criteria.

These four steps of preventative mediation really do help team members, including the doctor, establish productive communication systems that eventually will become second nature.

WORK WARS

Office workers spend over two and a half hours per week trying to resolve conflict, according to task-management software firm AtTask. This time translates into an amazing $359 billion in losses for U.S. companies every year.

What are the most common causes for costly workplace conflicts? Check out the details from AtTask.com below and rest assured that many office conflicts can be easily avoided simply by improving communication.

ONLY 3% OF WORK CONFLICTS ARE THE RESULT OF PERSONALITY OR CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Top 3 sources of workplace conflict:

opposing priorities



lack of communication



misunderstandings about a task’s urgency

THERE IS AN OVERABUNDANCE OF PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH PROJECTS

63% of office workers say there are too many cooks in the kitchen

64% say there’s confusion about who’s doing what…but a dearth of clarity on assignments and job roles

OFTEN, THE CAUSES OF CONFLICT GO ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP

Almost 4 out of 10 office workers say communication with their company leadership is ineffective

THE TOLL THESE CONFLICTS TAKE IS SERIOUS

1 out of 4
workers say just trying to avoid conflict causes illness or absence from work

32%
say conflict kills morale and increases turnover

30%
say it destroys confidence in other teams and distracts from opportunities

39%
say productivity is the biggest casualty of conflict

Establishing the structure for a mediating organization helps keep interests (needs, desires, concerns, fears, etc.) and issues (problems that need fixing) at the forefront of information flow and keeps communication at a quality level. In the end, all of these measures help a practice’s team members stay focused on finding wise solutions based on their collective knowledge, which really is at the heart of managing any conflict.

—Ginamarie Wells, Ph.D.

Ginamarie Wells, Ph.D., MCC, is a certified trainer for managing workplace conflict and the senior director at Cleinman Performance Partners, a full-service business consultancy specializing in the development of high-performance practices. ©2015 Cleinman Performance Partners, Inc. For information: cleinman.com.