Mediation
The Learning Need: Helping HR professionals engage as mediators
HR professionals and managers are cast in the role of mediator all the time. Mediation can be tricky since rarely do parties settle on a solution that makes everyone happy. One thing mediators know for sure is that when a solution is imposed, people may initially comply, but they will usually end up right where they started.
Kipp Grafton is a successful, energetic and larger-than-life salesman in a manufacturing company. Lee Swift is a young professional in the same company who is trying to make a name for herself, both in her profession and in the company. In One Truth, Two Stories, a client account is lost and the question is why. Kipp and Lee each have a story – and participants are left with a question: Which of the two is telling the truth?
Participants learn to look for a solution to this dilemma inside Kipp's needs and Lee's, and inside the motive each has for taking the action they do. Participants learn that these stories are less about events that either happened or didn't happen than they are about values. They learn to help themselves and Kipp and Lee get clearer about what these values are. They learn that the solution must be owned by the mediated if a lasting, productive relationship can emerge.
This simulation was frighteningly similar to my life. I see things like this all the time.
I now see how the choices I make can have a huge impact on how the stories end.
~ Participant