Programme overview
Introduction:
Disputes between colleagues rarely stay private: they slow decisions, split teams, raise absence and resignations, and too often end in a formal grievance that an earlier conversation could have settled. Managers and HR partners are expected to step in, yet few have a method for doing so. This Core Concept course builds practical conflict resolution and workplace mediation skills: reading the stage a dispute has reached, calming heated exchanges, running a structured mediation between two colleagues and agreeing team ground rules that stop the same conflict returning. Participants assemble a Workplace Mediation Casebook.
Course Objectives:
- Diagnose the sources of a workplace dispute and the escalation stage it has reached using Glasl's nine-stage model
- Choose an intervention that fits each party's conflict style and the stage of the dispute
- De-escalate heated conversations by acknowledging emotion, reframing accusations and restoring a working tone
- Run a structured mediation between two colleagues from first contact and separate meetings to a written agreement and follow-up
- Handle informal grievances at the early-resolution stage with impartiality, confidentiality and clear records
- Produce a Workplace Mediation Casebook with intake, agreement and team charter templates
Target Audience:
- Line managers responsible for resolving disputes within their own teams
- Team leaders accountable for day-to-day working relationships and team climate
- HR business partners advising managers on interpersonal disputes and early complaints
- Staff appointed as internal mediators or first points of contact for workplace disputes
- Project and department heads managing friction over shared work and resources
Course Outline:
Day 1: Workplace Conflict Sources and Escalation
- Conflict Source Map: Task, Relationship, Process and Status Disputes
- Glasl Nine-Stage Escalation Model: Win-Win, Win-Lose and Lose-Lose Phases
- Cost of Conflict Worksheet: Time, Absence, Turnover and Productivity
- Early Warning Signs Checklist for Team Disputes
- Team Conflict Health Check and Current-State Review
Day 2: Conflict Styles and Resolution Models
- Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Modes: Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding and Accommodating
- Positions, Interests and Needs Iceberg Model
- Interest-Based Problem Solving Sequence: Issues, Interests, Options and Criteria
- Intervention Choice Matrix Matched to Escalation Stage
- Mediation Principles: Voluntary Participation, Impartiality and Confidentiality
Day 3: De-escalation and the Structured Mediation Process
- Emotion Regulation Techniques for the Manager in a Heated Exchange
- De-escalation Language: Acknowledging, Reframing and Summarising
- Mediation Intake Form and Suitability Screening
- Separate Meetings with Each Party: Question Plan and Listening Record
- Joint Session Structure: Opening Statement, Uninterrupted Time and Agenda Setting
Day 4: Grievances, Difficult Cases and Relationship Repair
- Informal Grievance Handling: Early Resolution Route and Record Keeping
- Power Imbalance, Hidden Agendas and Impasse Handling in Mediation
- Referral Criteria: When a Case Moves to a Formal Procedure
- Mediation Agreement Drafting: Specific, Balanced and Reviewable Terms
- Relationship Repair Plan: Apology, Trust Rebuilding and Check-In Schedule
Day 5: Mediation Role-Plays and the Casebook
- Role-Play: Mediating a Workload Dispute Between Two Peers
- Role-Play: Mediating a Clash Between a Team Leader and a Senior Specialist
- Team Charter Workshop: Working Agreements and Conflict Protocol
- Follow-Up Review Meeting Script and Agreement Monitoring Log
- Workplace Mediation Casebook Assembly and Peer Feedback
Skills You Will Gain:
- Conflict Diagnosis
- Escalation Stage Assessment
- Conflict Style Adaptation
- De-escalation Technique
- Mediation Facilitation
- Impartial Questioning
- Agreement Drafting
- Team Charter Design
Why Attend This Course:
- Return with a Workplace Mediation Casebook of intake, agreement and team charter templates ready for the next dispute
- Rehearse a full mediation between two colleagues and receive feedback on neutrality and pacing
- Step into a heated exchange with words that lower the temperature instead of raising it
- Compare how disputes are handled with managers and HR partners from other sectors and countries
Conclusion:
Conflict between colleagues costs less to resolve early than to process formally. This course moves from the sources and escalation stages of workplace conflict, through conflict styles and interest-based problem solving, to de-escalation and a structured mediation process, and then to grievances handled at the early-resolution stage, difficult cases and relationship repair. The final day rehearses complete mediations in role-play and produces a Workplace Mediation Casebook with templates for intake, the mediation agreement and a team charter.