Conflict Resolution at Work for Dummies®

Chapter 9. Offering Proposals and Crafting Agreements

In This Chapter

• Reconvening a mediation session

• Creating settlements

• Closing the meeting on a positive note

It's time to continue your open session discussion with the two employees engaged in this conflict. Your hope is that the continued discussion will lead to proposed solutions and an agreement that settles the conflict. (For information about starting a mediation meeting, negotiation tips, and meeting privately with each party, see Chapter 8.) If you met privately with your employees, you helped both parties create and formulate proposals. That means you likely have a good idea of the offers that could be made. Keep your promise of confidentiality, though, as you bring the parties back into the room together for an open session.

In this chapter, I show you how to make room for quality communication, acknowledge new perspectives, and encourage your employees to have a positive outlook on their future working relationship — which inevitably will include some conflict. You also find tips on how to give your staff the hope they need beyond the meeting to know they can address future problems and not just solve this one issue in a vacuum. Finally, I tell you the six nonnegotiable attributes of a solid agreement.

Continuing Negotiations

As you prepare to continue negotiations, know that your employees' communication improving is more important than coming to consensus right away. As their manager, you may be itching for them to give ...