Let’s walk through a common conflict example. Two employees, Ted and Jamal, have been having a conflict the last couple of days. It gets to the point that Jamal comes to you and tells you that Ted is trying to turn the other employees against him.

So what do you do? A common response is you bring Ted and Jamal together, listen to their stories, decide which one is right, and pick a plan of action to ‘fix’ the problem, right? No! You may have solved the problem between them, but now you have a conflict between one of your employees and you. You do not want to be seen as a perpetrator by any of your employees.

So, how should you resolve conflict in your workplace? The next four lessons will walk you through the Facilitation Model. This will help you resolve workplace conflicts without having to step into the conflict and come out the bad guy. The steps to the Model are: Equalize Power, Manage the Discussion, Seek a Solution, and Follow-Up.