Mediation Skills for Public Sector Pioneers

Anyone tasked with making change happen in an organisation must be able to handle conflict with confidence, build trust, and foster collaboration.

All of these abilities are abundant in professional mediation practices, and with time, these skills can be learned by anyone.

Here are 4 mediation techniques you can use to help combat change resistance and make transformation happen.

Four Essential Skills for Public Sector Pioneers

1. Active Listening

Active Listening makes sure people are heard.

Active Listening is about paying attention to people when they speak. This technique can improve communication,  strengthen relationships, and build trust.

It is useful for organisational change, especially at the beginning of a new project, when a full understanding of a situation is needed to inform subsequent decision making.

Active Listening requires you to listen to understand, rather than listen to work out what you will say next. When you are in Active Listening mode, instead of responding straight away to what someone has said, you can summarise what you have heard. This gives you a chance to check your comprehension, and it gives the other person a chance to correct you if you have omitted any important details.

Active Listening is different to selective or adaptive listening, which is where you screen out some of what is being said, or mis-interpret the meaning based on your own world view.

Active Listening means noticing everything the other person is communicating, paying attention to their body language and tone of voice, as well as the words they are saying.

Active Listening works well when you avoid closed questions that can only lead to a yes or no answer, and instead use open questions that give people an opportunity to elaborate.

How to listen actively:

• Give the other person your full attention

• Listen to understand, not respond

• Summarise what the other person has said to check your comprehension

• Pick up on emotional cues through body language and tone of voice

• Ask open questions to find out more

Try this: In your next conversation, practice Active Listening. Listen carefully to what the other person is saying and then summarise what you heard back to them. See what kind of reaction you get, was it what you expected?

2. Identifying Unmet Needs

Identifying unmet needs helps explain resistance to change.

Everyone has core needs which are met, not met, or something in between. For example, some core needs are acceptance, respect and autonomy. We have needs in every aspect of our lives, with our friends, family, and also at work.

Often when people are sceptical about trying something new at work, this is because their core needs are being threatened, or are no longer being met. The best way forward from this situation is to gain a better understanding of why they are feeling negative towards making a change, and see if something can be done to help.

The introduction of a new software may threaten someone's sense of stability. An office move may take away someone's sense of belonging. New polices brought in to improve consistency can impair someone's freedom and creativity.

Building a better understanding of emotional impact is the first step towards  ensuring people's needs continue to be met as things change.

For example

• If the introduction of a new software creates an unmet need of stability, then guidance, training and peer-learning can be used to meet it.

• If an office move creates an unmet need of belonging, staff orientation sessions, coffee mornings and improved signage can help.

• If a new organisational policy needs to be developed, getting the people who must follow it involved increases the likelihood that the need for freedom and creativity continues to be met.

To identify needs, it is first important to be able to name them. Then it becomes possible to identify them based on what people say and how they behave.

Examples of core needs:

Safety/Security - feeling comfortable and relaxed, not threatened

Belonging/Community - feeling part of the team

Acceptance/Reassurance - feeling loved for exactly who you are

Recognition/Admiration - feeling appreciated and respected for the value you bring

Autonomy/Freedom - feeling in control of your own destiny, not dictated to by others

Mastery/Skill - feeling expert at a certain skillPurpose/Drive  - feeling driven towards a goal

Adventure/Excitement - feeling like you are taking risks and learning new things

Creativity/Play - feeling like you are having fun

Try this: Look carefully at these needs. Can you think of an organisational change that might threaten each need? In the scenarios you identify, what might people say or do to indicate that their needs are not being met? What mitigations could you put in place to make sure the need continues to be met?

3.Neutral Re-framing

Neutral Re-framing de-escalates tense situations and helps find a way forward.

Neutral Re-framing is when you take something negative that someone has said and summarise the point with impartiality. This form of summarising is useful if you want to recognise emotions without escalating conflict. It is a form of summarising that can be used effectively when paired with Active Listening.

This skill is helpful in the context of change and transformation because when people are under pressure they can slip into an overly critical frame of mind, which reduces their capacity to think creatively and feel hopeful for the future.

By re-framing a comment that is highly charged, you can help bring perspective to an issue. You also give the commenter a chance to reflect on what they have said and confirm if it is really what they think. The risk with neutral re-framing is that it might be interpreted as passive aggressive, or toxically positive. To avoid this, it's important to take people's feelings seriously and not downplay the severity of a situation.

Examples of neutral re-framing:

Party: I hate this new software it's rubbish, I can't be bothered with it and I think it is a total waste of money.

Mediator: What I am hearing is you really do not like the new software, you have not got the motivation to use it, and you think it cost a lot of money which could have been better spent on something else.

Party: The whole change programme is a farce, everything has already been decided, what's the point in contributing.

Mediator: I think what you're saying is you are distrusting of the change programme, and you have doubts to whether your opinions will be considered.

Party: They say these new management changes will make a difference, it's nonsense, all they are doing is re-organising the deck chairs on a sinking ship.

Mediator: Sounds like even though leadership are saying that they intend to make things better, you don't think it's enough to improve things to the level that is needed.

Try this: Next time someone says something negative, try to summarise what they have said using neutral re-framing. See if you can do this in a compassionate and constructive way, which acknowledges and validates their feelings, without escalating emotions.

4. Responding to Challenge

Effectively responding to challenge lets you lead with empathy and assertiveness.

When threatened or concerned by change, people can act defensively. In these situations it is important to be empathetic and non-judgmental. There is a difficult balance to be struck if you want dissatisfied people to be able to express their views while not stopping those who are eager for change from also having their say.

The DESC framework is a helpful tool for responding to challenge. DESC stands for Describe, Explain, Show and Communicate.

The DESC Framework for responding to challenge:

Describe what you are noticing - In the all staff meeting this morning I noticed you made a lot of negative comments.

Explain the effect of the behaviour - This made the speakers feel nervous and left little time for others to express their views.

Show that you understand how others feel and the positive intention behind their behaviour - I know that you have a lot of experience in this area and you are passionate about us getting this right.

Communicate your preferred alternative - Can you come to me before the next meeting so that I can make sure your points have been fully considered, this will also mean that during the meeting others have time to comment.

Try this: Imagine a scenario where you are faced with a destructive behaviour from a colleague at work. How could you respond using the DESC framework? Write down what you could say or practice speaking it out loud.

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Organisational transformation asks a lot from the people we work with. It requires them to shift routines, learn new skills, and adapt behaviours to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. Sometimes this change can bring tension or even conflict into the workplace, this is not a sign of failure, it’s a natural responses to uncertainty and disruption.

In these moments, mediation skills can help you relate with humanity, understand people’s needs more deeply, and keep striving to reach aspirational objectives for your organisation.

Sign up to a workshop from the Creative Bureaucracy online programme, and join the Creative Bureaucracy community on apolitical.

Check out CMP solutions who delivery expert  mediation training, and have been the partner of choice for employers on workplace relations since 1989.