Consulting

Our consulting practice focuses on three main areas of specialism - providing on demand, situation-sensitive dispute resolution coaching & advice to those facing conflict, working with individuals who feel bullied or who are the alleged perpetrators of bullying and defining an effective conflict management strategy and making this work.

Conflict Coaching & Consulting

Both those who are embraced in a dispute and those who have to manage conflict can benefit from the help of a conflict coach. Managers too sometimes find themselves struggling to know how to respond to an unhappy team or a disgruntled team member whose grudge is directed toward them. Conflict coaching can help give clarity on possible ways forward, help individuals make sense of a troubling situation and enable people to get to the nub of what is really bothering them and what they want to achieve.

It can prompt reflection on the perspectives of others and genuinely help change mindsets, so improving the prospect that commitments to resolutions will be lasting. It will almost always better prepare individuals for more effective mediation, and add value during and after other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) too.

Coaching is non-directional in nature. Conflict coaching differs a little, in that not all who come to coaching believe that it may help them, whilst many are influenced by the views of others.

What's more, whilst coaching assumes that a person being coached ‘has their own answers’, in office disputes and other work-based conflict scenarios, many often don’t know what alternatives are available to them. For example, not all will appreciate the different types of mediation that might be considered nor have a realistic view about what might be achieved should they set a course toward an employment tribunal hearing.

Conflict coaching is typically a brief intervention, often restricted to just one or two conversations, and not allowing for the normal development of relationship and on-going process of a dialogue that coaching usually requires.

For these reasons, our coaches expect to often be asked to offer limited advice, share knowledge and act as a reflection-boards for the people they coach. This switching of roles between consulting and coaching is a normal agreed 'boundary rule' for conflict coaching, although it requires practitioners to be clear what role is most appropriate for them to play at any particular time, to recognise the boundaries they are qualified to operate within and know how to complement support being provided by others.

Our coaches are highly experienced not just in coaching, but coaching individuals through conflict. All are fully trained, accredited by professional coaching bodies and submit to voluntary supervision. Several have won awards recognising their achievements in coaching practice.

Coaching conversations of between 30 minutes and 1 hour a time are usually spread over a number of weeks, if not restricted to just one or two sessions. As well as face-to-face sessions, coaching conversations may optionally be conducted by phone or Skype call.

Further information

We are always very happy to talk to organisations that may not have an immediate need for help but who want to informally talk through the possibility of forming a relationship with a conflict management specialist that they may quickly call upon when the need arises. Of course such conversations and any subsequent engagement involves no obligation. We look forward to talking with you.

To reach us, please email info@thejanuspartnership.com or call us on +44(0)20 7870 1080.

To download a PDF information sheet about our conflict coaching service, please click here.

Bullying

Allegations of bullying feature highly amongst the causes of grievance that we encounter. Often differences of view on what constitutes ‘bullying’ and what is seen as being ‘strong management’ are at the heart of such disputes. Knowing how to make clear the distinction between the two can be helped through simple techniques that cause individuals to gain greater awareness of themselves and better appreciate the perspectives of others.

To address this need and to help individuals who feel bullied or are accused of bullying, we provide sensitive, focused mentoring.

For 'victims', topics that this might cover include:
~ Offering practical advice in how to cope with their alleged aggressors,
~ Managing strong emotion and
~ Building self esteem.

Topics that might be relevant to work through with 'bullies' include:
~ Handling strong emotions,
~ Self management and
~ Channelling aggressive or passive aggressive behaviour.

Further information

We are always very happy to talk to organisations that may not have an immediate need for help but who want to informally talk through the possibility of forming a relationship with a dispute resolution specialist that they may quickly call upon when the need arises. Of course such conversations and any subsequent engagement involves no obligation. We look forward to talking with you.

To reach us, please email info@thejanuspartnership.com or call us on +44(0)20 7870 1080.

To download a PDF information sheet about our bullying mentoring service, please click here.

Effective Conflict Management Strategy

Effective conflict management is a vital cornerstone for any organisation’s people management strategy and for strong HR relationship management. Conflict resolution is often a costly, resource-intensive and unsatisfactory process.

We therefore strongly advocate that organisations identify and follow a clear strategy for managing conflict, in other words, put in place a pre-planned approach aimed at minimising and containing destructive conflict, and so too the cost of conflict.

In defining a strategy, more is needed than producing a grievance procedure, being able to appoint mediators on demand and including a module on handling workplace disputes in manager training. Amongst other concerns, a conflict management strategy must address how to regulate individuals’ activity and behaviour through both formal and informal (cultural) means. So too, it must help define and be integrated with the policies, procedures and other mechanisms that shape the environments in which managers manage and staff members operate.

Putting in place effective measures to improve the way an organisation deals with employee disputes needn’t be burdensome. Drawing on insights, ready-made templates and checklists, we can affect a quick knowledge transfer and offer highly focused consultancy to help you develop and (more critically) put in place a strategy that:
~ Prevents or minimises conflict
~ Ensures that escalated disputes are managed effectively, and
~ Sets in place an approach for monitoring how effectively conflict is being managed.

Preventing or minimising conflict primarily concerns the role that front-line managers can play in encouraging team relationships, allowing staff disagreements to be aired and unconstructive conflict to be recognised and contained at an early stage.

Escalated dispute management focuses on the role of intermediaries in informal mediation, grievance investigation and alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Within this broad category, attention should be given to sourcing options, as well as to enhancing or building an ‘in-house mediation’ capability and developing internal mediators.

Monitoring considers not only keeping track of what happens in the aftermath of a closed dispute and containing the fall-out of disagreements which escalate into litigation and the public domain, but also at how the success or otherwise of an organisation’s CM strategy can be evaluated and how learnings may be captured and disseminated for the benefit of others.

Through a simple audit of current arrangements, we can quickly help you pinpoint possible areas in which you may wish to change, and show how these will typically be cost justified several times over.

Further information

We are always very happy to talk to organisations that may not have an immediate need for help but who want to informally talk through the possibility of forming a relationship with a conflict management, grievance investigation and mediation specialist that they may quickly call upon when the need arises. Of course such conversations and any subsequent engagement involves no obligation. We look forward to talking with you.

To reach us, please email info@thejanuspartnership.com or call us on +44(0)20 7870 1080.

To download a PDF information sheet about how we support conflict management strategy planning and implementation, please click here.