What Is Mediation in Healthcare?
A Neutral Path Through Workplace Conflict

Transforming Healthcare Coaching Podcast — Episode 71: What is Mediation in Healthcare? Coach Gillian Faith with co-host Klaus.

Introduction and Guest Introduction

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Klaus Grim: Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of Transforming Healthcare Coaching, and today I have Coach Gillian Faith with us today, and we're going to talk about mediation. I think this is a topic that a lot of people worry about. And Gillian, I think this is your specialty. And I want to go ahead and just start it off, Gillian.

Gillian's Journey into Mediation

Klaus Grim: I guess what, what got you into mediation in the first place?

Gillian Faith: What got me into mediation good question. So I found myself being the peacekeeper when I was working in in healthcare and also in other organizations. I've worked for I feel the strain and the negative energy when people are either not getting along [00:01:00] they don't understand something or something's really stressing them out, or some relationship's really not working out and have this natural inclination to want to help that process so that, the energy can be more positive again, and we can all get to showing up and doing our work. So

Klaus Grim: that's beautiful.

Gillian Faith: and

I was also told that my accent helps in these situations and I've also been told that I'm a calming influence. So when people have told me that, when, I work with them, I'm able to bring the emotion in the room down. Because let's face it, conflict is emotional and people get. Anxious, they get angry.

Klaus Grim: Its

Gillian Faith: stressful. So anything we can do to help diffuse some of the emotions so that we can actually get to some understanding of what's going on and what's actually going to help is a win-win -win all [00:02:00] around.

Klaus Grim: Yeah, and having known you now for about two years, I can see that is a skill that you have and it's a very unique skill. Not many people have the ability to step into conflict. Especially if it's not our own conflict and to help diffuse and come to a solution. It's very challenging, and I think it's a challenge for most healthcare professionals out there.

Defining Mediation

Klaus Grim: So if you had to coin your own definition to mediation, what would that be?

Gillian Faith: So mediation becomes helpful when two parties cannot work out some kind of disagreement or misunderstanding themselves. So if I am entering into a mediation relationship, I am a neutral third party. I've already established that I do not have a connection with either of the parties involved.

because that would be a conflict of interest. And if that happened, I would ask somebody else to [00:03:00] mediate. So I'm coming into it as a neutral third party with mediation and coaching skills and the ability to listen to either side and summarize and hopefully then facilitate a process that comes to some agreement at the end of it.

Klaus Grim: I see. That's very interesting that there's some background skills that you have obtained to be a mediator in these situations. And it's something I was never familiar with, so thank you for sharing that. So, conflict, as we know, comes up in many different ways and very different contexts in our lives.

And conflict's not always negative. Is that true?

Gillian Faith: Absolutely. So conflict can actually be a healthy thing. It doesn't always feel good, in fact, probably never feels very good, although some people do like to have a good debate conflict can also be healthy in that if we disagree with [00:04:00] somebody or we do something differently, or we challenge somebody's thinking on something, it actually can lead to new ways of thinking or new ways of doing things,

Klaus Grim: or

Gillian Faith: even just deeper understanding of people's different perspectives. We talk about, what makes a team work well, one of the things is having diversity on teams. Having people with different backgrounds and different perspectives. But when we bring a group of people together with different backgrounds and perspectives, there's always the room for things to go wrong. And we're all human beings, ? We're going to agree. Sometimes we're gonna disagree, sometimes. Sometimes we're bringing in our own biases and our own past experiences with things. So, if we can get to the point where we can have healthy discussions and accept that other people are disagreeing with us, it can actually be a healthy process and we may come

to a better outcome as a result.

Klaus Grim: [00:05:00] Wow.

So what comes up for me here is, with conflict, especially with healthcare professionals. Thankfully, knock on wood, I have not had to go through this situation, but I could imagine if I ever did that, I may be stirred up in all these emotions. Anger not being able to see the other party's side.

And I think that's a typical circumstance that a lot of people have when they go into mediation. And correct me if I'm wrong on that.

The Mediation Process

Klaus Grim: So, yeah, so I guess this is actually a perfect time to ask you, so what is the process of mediation? Is it an hour session where you meet with the different parties and hash things out?

Is it like a multiple session, like a coaching relationship that we establish where okay, we didn't finish everything today, we'll come back in a week or two weeks after you've worked on this set task? Or is it you have one session to just, figure out some solution. I'm curious.

Gillian Faith: Yeah, so the [00:06:00] mediation process is first of all, it's voluntary. Unless of course, attorneys are involved and that's a whole different thing. But normally speaking, it's a voluntary process that both parties agree to take part in because they both want to work through whatever it is that is causing the issue. so when somebody two parties would come for some mediation, the first thing we do is we decide how much time do we actually need? What do we think is a a, a realistic time? It could be an hour, but it could be a half day. It could be a whole day. But what is important about the timing is it there is an end time there is an end to the session because the whole goal of mediation is to work through whatever the issue is and that both parties walk away with either an agreement

Klaus Grim: or

Gillian Faith: next steps. But we put a time limit on it for a reason because we don't want these things to go on and on and on. And if we need to add on more time, we can also add [00:07:00] on more time

Klaus Grim: depending

Gillian Faith: on what the situation is. So the process is we agree on a time, we agree on a location in persons better, but we can also do these sessions over Zoom. And as a mediator, I would set out the process. So here's what we're gonna do. We're going to listen to each other's sides. We're going to seek to understand each side.

Klaus Grim: I

Gillian Faith: am going to summarize both sides. And as a coach Klaus, acknowledging and validating when somebody is feeling upset or emotionally charged about something, acknowledging and validating them is a very powerful process. So same in mediation. People like to be acknowledged.

They like to know that they've been heard, even though there's still a disagreement. It's a very important part. so we do that. Then we hear each side as a mediator I would then summarize each side and the summarizing is to make sure that we have all heard it correctly [00:08:00] and that we are accepting that that's what's being,

Klaus Grim: Brought

Gillian Faith: out. we then summarize what the issues are, and that could be two things. It could be five things, just depending again, on what the situation is,

Klaus Grim: and

Gillian Faith: we agree that this is what we're gonna work on. We then generate options from both sizes to potential solutions, and we then work through each of the options. In working through each of the options, hopefully we are going to reach an agreement

Klaus Grim: and

Gillian Faith: either we reach an agreement by the end of the mediation time or we have to set up another meeting with next steps that are again, intentional in coming to some kind of an agreement.

Klaus Grim: Wow. Very interesting that there's a pretty significant structure associated with these mediation sessions

,

with the goal, outcome of both parties being heard. And coming to some form of agreement that or some kind of [00:09:00] solution for the two where hopefully they can move forward in a positive way.

.

Gillian Faith: Yeah, absolutely.

When to Seek Mediation

Klaus Grim: So why would someone need the services of a professional mediator, especially in healthcare?

Gillian Faith: So

Klaus Grim: somebody

Gillian Faith: might seek services if they have an ongoing issue that they cannot resolve themselves. Now, if somebody I have some HR background, in employee relations and people would reach out to me and they would say, can I talk to you about whatever the problem is? And here's what's happening. so my very first question is always, have you had a conversation about it? And sometimes they would have, and it's not actually helped. Many times there was no conversation. So that's always the first step.

And something else to differentiate here is there can be an internal [00:10:00] mediation process. and that could be an informal thing. It could be two people in two healthcare professionals that can't work something out or can't see each other's side.

And maybe it's the HR leader in the organization that sits down as a neutral third party. Maybe they don't actually need a formal mediator but somebody who has the skills and an HR people are quite often involved in these situations. So in an internal situation, that would be one way to approach it. If it's two people who are senior leaders in an organization, they may want an external mediator to come in or an external facilitator. Because of the confidentiality surrounding whatever it is that's going on. So in healthcare I could see it going with either a neutral third party HR person or an experienced mediator.

Klaus Grim: It's very interesting because the one thing that I think you said was, your [00:11:00] first question is, did you have a conversation? How many times do we have conflict with somebody where we just want somebody to come in and fix it for us when we haven't even tried it for ourselves? I think there's such a unique skill or a power to

having that conversation yourself first, and you mentioned some things maybe very sensitive and I'm curious, do you ever go into a mediation if they've never had a conversation before?

Gillian Faith: It wouldn't usually get to the point of mediation if they hadn't had a conversation before. Usually they would've had some kind of a conversation and it's just not working out. But, just in disagreements among parties on an informal basis that would always be the first step in actually resolving a conflict.

Klaus Grim: Yeah, totally. It definitely is. So hopefully that first conversation could just be the one conversation that may [00:12:00] resolve any future issues in conflict. So sometimes it, it sounds like you have HR who within organizations who attempt the mediation or have some mediation background first, but sometimes more sensitive or confidential situations where they maybe need less bias.

Is when they start to hire an external mediator. Is that, is that accurate? Okay. And. If, if you are able to, can you touch maybe about when you had mentioned briefly about when legal and attorneys get involved with mediation. What's the difference between just resolving workplace culture conflict versus things requiring more highly advanced services.

Gillian Faith: so are you talking about if there's an attorney involved in a, in a claim? If

Klaus Grim: Yeah.

Gillian Faith: made a claim?

Klaus Grim: Mm-hmm.

Gillian Faith: somebody's made a claim and it's ended up with people having legal representation. Sometimes the [00:13:00] attorneys will ask for mediation, this will be, if it's a case where okay to use mediation and there's a chance it might get worked out. In mediation, and quite often the attorneys are present at these mediation sessions,

Klaus Grim: I see. So sometimes a mediator is involved to hopefully pre prevent more legal processes developing as a result of the conflict.

Gillian Faith: Yeah, it ends up making a case, obviously this only works for certain cases, but it can be a cheaper, faster way to resolve a dispute.

Klaus Grim: I see. That's good to know. And so now that we kind of understand the process of mediation, what is mediation? Who gets mediation? What makes mediation a very successful process for resolving conflict?

Gillian Faith: So there's a few things. First of all, we mentioned it's a voluntary process, so both parties are agreeing to it. [00:14:00] So you would hope that both parties want to find a resolution and so there's that. The other part is the neutral third party with no bias on either side. It's Got a time limit on it. We talked about that as well. So it's effective because hopefully within two hours or within four hours or within a day, there will be some resolution and if there's not resolution, there will be very intentional next steps. So, because it's a structured process with a very clear goal in mind, I think that can help make it successful.

Klaus Grim: Yeah, it sounds like there's often buy-in before the session takes place. And that voluntary aspect oftentimes is enough for each party going in there saying, I want something different out of this and I'm willing to, to be a little bit more vulnerable to create something that might work

because the current circumstances of conflict are just not working for them.

Gillian Faith: And as a [00:15:00] facilitator and mediator, it's also our role to help draw out other options that might not be apparent to the two parties. So

Klaus Grim: it's possible

Gillian Faith: that we can find more options to add to the list that actually might help resolve the conflict that they either hadn't thought of before, or they didn't think it was possible, or they didn't know how to get there.

Klaus Grim: Very interesting. And do you in these mediation sessions, are there often a supervisor or manager that sometimes sits in there as well, that stays silent. And offers similar suggestions like you mentioned.

Gillian Faith: not normally because it's a confidential process. Again, just depends on the circumstances though.

Klaus Grim: Yeah. Good to know.

Conflict Resolution Tips

Klaus Grim: So what advice would you give someone who is experiencing a conflict that is really hard to resolve?

Gillian Faith: Okay. First of all, is it possible to have a conversation with the person in a non-confrontational way? Because [00:16:00] conflict and emotions go hand in hand, so is it possible to have a conversation along the lines of, can you help me understand why you know you did what you did? Or are you open for a conversation regarding whatever it is?

So to approach it with less emotion, maybe less blame.

Klaus Grim: Yeah, have the conversation. Try not to, bring in too much of the emotions that you wouldn't want as well if somebody were to approach you, it sounds like.

Gillian Faith: So also

Klaus Grim: listen

Gillian Faith: to each side, listen to other people's perspectives and try and put yourself in their shoes. Sometimes it's hard to do that, but if we take the time and make the effort, sometimes it can help us understand what's really going on because quite often what somebody thinks is going on is not really the whole story or it's maybe [00:17:00] something else. But it's hard to know that until you can have some kind of a dialogue.

Klaus Grim: Yeah.

Positive Intelligence in Conflict Resolution

Klaus Grim: Gillian, I think this is a really good time to bring in some of your positive intelligence background, and we've talked about this in our positive intelligence episode. What can somebody do when they just cannot believe that the other party is right in any way?

Gillian Faith: Yeah, so Positive Intelligence is, is an established program and it helps people with lots of different things, but one of the things it helps people with is conflict resolution. And the theory that Positive Intelligence takes is that in a disagreement. The other side is always at least 10% correct. And if we can approach a conflict or a disagreement with that in mind, does that then help us open up to what the other person might be thinking or feeling? So if we actually give them, [00:18:00] or we assume that they are at least 10%? What does that help us open up in a conversation?

Klaus Grim: Yeah, what comes up for me here is also thinking I could be 10% wrong as well. Mm-hmm. So there's a 10% where I could be completely wrong in this situation. Let me go into this with curiosity. I don't know. That's something I never thought about and I had experienced positive intelligence as well, but never really thought that out loud when I start to hear about conflict.

And I think that's a another way to maybe approach a, a difficult conversation.

Gillian Faith: Yeah. Thank you for reminding us about that. And I have used that myself with times when I think I'm a hundred percent, then I stop and I pause and I think, well,

Klaus Grim: what

Gillian Faith: if I'm not a hundred percent?

What if

Klaus Grim: and it's,

Gillian Faith: The other person is at least 10%.

Klaus Grim: So, it's funny because I think we've been talking a lot about conflict in the workplace, but

Gillian Faith: mm-hmm.

Broader Applications of Conflict Resolution

Klaus Grim: Where else does conflict exist?

Gillian Faith: Yeah, so obviously [00:19:00] relationships and in the business world, obviously there's lots there. Maybe there's a contract that didn't go down the way it was supposed to, and there's a disagreement over that. I know a lot of people who are experiencing relationship issues may end up in counseling or they may end up in mediation to help find an answer before they go down the road of separation.

Klaus Grim: Yeah, so these techniques that we've talked about are not just for difficult conversations with colleagues or in your workplace, but in your personal life as well with relationship issues when you're yelling at your partner about who's cooking dinner and what's being cooked,

I can't see why they'd want to cook that 10%, 10%. So this is really helpful. So I'm curious, how can we work through a conflict so it doesn't get to mediation even in the first place?

Gillian Faith: So obviously we've talked about have the [00:20:00] conversation. The other side of that is we also have to be open as one of the parties to listen to the other person. So listening and

Klaus Grim: talking

Gillian Faith: trying to understand. And try not to place blame.

Klaus Grim: Yeah, and everything I got from this as well is in that conversation. Be open careful with the emotion that comes with conflict. Not to be as judgmental as we may come across when we bring up challenges that we're having with this other person or persons. And then, going into it with a goal, like you had mentioned,

like almost following a mediation structure. Having that conversation with an anticipation and a goal to maybe move beyond that conflict or that challenge that you guys are having together.

Klaus Grim: I think is coming up for me. And then another thing that you had mentioned, and it's a, is a true coaching skill, which is acknowledging and validating the other person.

Though it may come off as very difficult.

Gillian Faith: [00:21:00] Mm-hmm.

Klaus Grim: We all want to be heard and that's why you're approaching the conversation is because you want to be heard about the conflict that you're having and the reason it's bringing you conflict. So they're probably likely wanting the same thing. They want to be heard just as importantly.

And you can do that and shift oftentimes a lot of the more negative energy that maybe you experienced between the two of you.

Gillian Faith: Yeah.

Klaus Grim: Yeah. So, thank you Gillian.

Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Klaus Grim: Are you still doing mediation?

Gillian Faith: Yes.

Klaus Grim: Yeah. So how can people reach you if they maybe need a mediator?

Gillian Faith: Well, I am on LinkedIn, Gillian Faith, and my email address is there as well. My phone number's there, so it's easy to find me and happy to have a conversation with anybody that has an issue that they're dealing with and are wondering if mediation is for them. So happy to have a chat.

Klaus Grim: And then lastly, Gillian, what tip would you have for maybe a, we have a lot of healthcare leaders who listen to this at this [00:22:00] podcast. So maybe an HR leader or a chief or somebody who deals with a lot of conflict. Maybe what's one tip for them? From everything we spoke about today about conflict and mediation.

Gillian Faith: One tip that I would, advise on is to have some kind of a structure for the meeting. Doesn't have to be perfect, but think through what the structure could be and what the outcomes could be so that you're going into a meeting prepared.

Klaus Grim: Awesome. Well, this was great. I learned an incredible amount about mediation today, so thank you for sharing your specialty and the process to our audience and me, and we look forward to seeing everybody in the next episode.

Gillian Faith: Thank you Klaus

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