Act immediately. Conflicts do not go away and unresolved conflicts can lie dormant for days, weeks or months, only to explode on another occasion. Avoiding conflict is one of the main causes of claims being made against an organization. Workers that make claims often feel that no one has listened or done anything to resolve the conflict, feeling they have no choice but to seek the help of professionals. Unresolved workplace conflicts can quickly impact on workplace climate or culture — whole teams are quickly affected as conflict spreads and other employees become involved plus productivity, performance and workplace relationships can suffer as well.
Meet with people involved in the conflict separately. Get a clear understanding of the issues before you try to intervene — people often have very different perceptions of what has occurred, understanding their perceptions will help you to focus on what is important to each person, and to find common ground.
Perception is reality. Focus on what the people involved need and what’s important to them, not on trying to judge who is right or wrong. Often both people have contributed something to the situations so judging who is right and wrong, and particularly commenting on these judgements, can escalate conflict quickly.
Decide whether to mediate or to call in others to help. Once you have discussed the issues with all or both of the people involved, decide whether you will be able to mediate the situation yourself or need the help of HR or external mediators. Managers often successfully resolve simple disputes that have only been alive for a few hours, days or weeks. Complex and long-standing issues involving a number of people are best left for experienced mediators to deal with, these kinds of workplace conflicts are often sensitive and require high-level skill to bring them to a resolution.
Arrange the next stage as soon as possible. While it can be difficult to arrange meetings in busy work places, ensure resolving the conflict is a top priority — generally the longer the conflict goes on for, the harder it is to resolve.
