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Writer's pictureJocelyn Ames

5 Signs Your Team Could Benefit from Mediation Skills (And How to Start Now)

It’s easy to recognise conflict when sparks are flying, and words are being shot like arrows across a room. But conflicts don’t have to be explosive to cause damage.


Often it’s the less obvious tensions which, when left unaddressed, can seriously derail productivity, team morale and innovative collaboration. These subtler signs of disconnect can be harder to identify, but a strong team knows they’re the most important to resolve.


That’s where mediation skills come in. By equipping your team with the tools to navigate conflict, you create a team environment where collaboration can thrive, misunderstandings are transformed into learning opportunities, and trust can be (re)built.



In this post, we’ll have a look at 5 key signs that your team could benefit from mediation skills —and how you can start addressing them today.


Factions, Lobbying, and Hidden Agendas


If you notice team members forming cliques or launching "surprise attacks" to push for change, it’s often a sign of mistrust or fear that their needs won’t be heard. Mediation training helps teams listen to each other’s needs and find constructive, respectful solutions. When a mediator supports a team in more regularly achieving win-win outcomes, it builds trust that concerns will be handled with care. Over time, people will feel more comfortable addressing issues openly, rather than resorting to power plays and coup-like behaviours to get their needs met.


Politeness at all costs


If your team tends to be more conflict avoidant, you’re not alone! Many of us fear confrontation and conflict because we’ve experienced the disconnect and pain it can cause. This often leads towards a culture of artificial harmony. Perhaps the team has a tendency towards ‘groupthink’, or a fear of ‘rocking the boat’ leads to vague discussions and/or decisions getting delayed. If we avoid offering each other feedback or challenging each other’s ideas, underlying issues remain unaddressed and a team misses valuable opportunities for innovation and growth.


Someone with mediation skills can help the team to be more courageous and confident with expressing dissenting opinions and alternative viewpoints, allowing more diverse perspectives to be brought to the table in a constructive way without it overwhelming or polarising the group.


Passive aggression


When there’s a lack of opportunity, skill or safety to express negative feelings, distress and resentments, they tend to come out in more disruptive ways that damage relationships and make communication more difficult. It’s not uncommon to see people resort to other coping mechanisms to express themselves such as disrupting collaboration by showing up late, avoidance, silence, snide jokes, sarcasm and bitter tit-for-tat reasoning. A team with mediation skills can help each other address conflict more directly and cleanly, rather than having it seep sideways.


Repeated misunderstandings


Are there people in your team who just seem to trigger each other over the same pattern? Perhaps they can only hear each other’s words as an insult or attack. They might be trying their best to work together and get along, but, in the words of Khalil Gibran, “between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost.” A mediator can help people understand each other’s communication style, identify trigger patterns, and what each person needs to work together more productively and easily.


Dysfunctional Ways of Working


When tensions go unaddressed for too long, a sense of powerlessness and complacency can take hold. The team starts to accept the dysfunction, settling for a "just get through it or work around it" mentality. This might show up as team members relying on impersonal communication when a call or face-to-face meeting would be better, or as important conversations shifting to smaller, off-the-record chats where people feel more at ease to speak freely. Team members may also avoid addressing issues directly, instead turning to management to step in. Over time, this leads to a sense of disconnection, lower engagement, and reduced productivity.


A team with the skills to handle tensions and rebuild trust can reclaim energy, work more effectively, and enjoy a stronger, more fulfilling collaboration.


How to get started


Addressing these kinds of challenges in your team starts with an open conversation about how you currently handle conflict. You might ask each other questions like:


  • How do we typically respond to tension?

  • What’s working well, and what isn’t?

  • What could help us improve?


From there, consider setting up a conflict transformation protocol to guide your team through difficult moments. Outline together what you will do when tension arises. What personal tools and practices do you recommend for each other when you feel triggered? Who can you approach for conflict support? Who has mediation skills to support a conversation?


Training a few team members in mediation skills can also provide a valuable resource for managing conflict in-house. My Mediation Skills for Collaborative Team course is designed exactly for that!


And finally, you might also consider investing in a full conflict and mediation training for the team to build a shared understanding and equip everyone with the tools they need to resolve tensions constructively. 


If you’d like some support in figuring out what would be best for you and your team, feel free to get in touch with me at jocelyn@thehum.org

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