THE CHALLENGE

Relationships between the leadership team and its unions were increasingly tense. It was almost impossible to hold meetings without issues becoming personal. Reaching agreements and moving forward on organisational change had stalled.

They sought help with how to 'clear the air' and agree changes to ways of working to prevent the relationship deteriorating further.

THE APPROACH - rebuilding relationships

Acting as facilitator, we spoke to both parties on their own - enabling them to have a clear understanding of the process and providing time for any questions.

This gave them the opportunity to state how they saw the current relationship and issues and allowed us as facilitators to begin to understand both parties perspectives.

The next step was to bring the parties together for a one-day joint mediated session. This gave them an opportunity to describe what employment relations felt like from their perspective, using uninterrupted speaking time. Both parties then reflected on the feedback they had been given.

They then separately worked on creating a list of tangible improvement ideas. They specifically focused on how they worked together in meetings - discussing issues that had previously caused frustration, blocked change and impacted other joint work.

THE OUTCOME

Both parties presented their list of tangible actions to each other. Both parties were quick to notice the areas of overlap and agreement in what they wanted to change – they had more in common than they had originally thought.

These two lists were combined by the groups into one joint list of agreed changes. The HR leader agreed to continue working with all the key stakeholders to bring these changes to life in future meetings.

Frustrations were addressed.

Previously blocked changes were unlocked.

Future joint working was secured.

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