Could Mediation help your business?
Listen to Dorcas Crawford talk to Wendy Austin...
Listen to Dorcas Crawford talk to Wendy Austin...
Businesses, charities, boards, committees and senior management teams are frequently faced with situations where they would benefit from the involvement of an independent and impartial third party to facilitate progress.
This week I’ve been working on an article on mediation for NI Business Magazine, Business First (the article will follow in the next few weeks) and I’ve also been working with some businesses in Belfast, facilitating and mediating with directors and senior management teams.
The dangers of failing to deal with conflict in the workplace in a proactive and constructive way were highlighted this week in the Irish News report of a massive increase of almost 30% in the number of cases taken to the Employment Tribunal in Northern Ireland.
Dorcas is delighted to join the UK’s leading mediators again this year in being ranked in Chambers Directory. For those who are not familiar with the Directory it is published each year as a result of detailed research and interviews with colleagues and clients.
This is one of the most frequent comments parties make when they send me feedback after a mediation and, whilst mediation skills and experience are crucial, the key to it is the neutral role a mediator plays.
As SME’s throughout the UK continue to recover from the recession but are faced with the implications of Brexit, another major threat to their economic viability, thought has to be given to how they manage dispute resolution.
This week Dorcas Crawford, Senior partner and founder of Edwards & Co's innovative conflict management service, the better way, took part in a Trade Mission for the NI legal sector to Washington DC
Like any SME we at Edwards & Co have our share of workplace disputes – to state the obvious, we employ people and people don’t always see eye to eye.
An increase in the use of mediation to resolve commercial disputes and the constantly growing market mean that there are more mediators than ever available. In the recent (7th ) mediation audit of the UK market by CEDR (the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) it was reported that over 10,000.00 mediations take place annually in England and Wales.
All of us face the prospect of difficult conversations, almost on a daily basis – in our home life, our work life and even in our social life.
Companies and their boards spend huge resources on strategic planning, financial decisions and governance but few, if any, have a plan for dealing with conflict and yet disputes, particularly at board level, have the capacity to render the entire organisation dysfunctional.