Dispute resolution guidelines/best practices for a small organization?
January 30, 2021 8:52 AM Subscribe
I'm part of a small, mostly volunteer arts organization with big aspirations. We try to operate fairly non-hierarchically. Two members, who are engaged in a complex project with lots of details and lots of liaising with outside volunteers/professionals, are having communication issues with each other. They've asked other members to help them resolve these issues - and hopefully set up some precedent for future internal conflict.
Before I wade in with gut feelings and tea - are there readings/articles/step-by-step guidelines you can point me to?
Are they having communication issues or are they experiencing conflict? The two can of course relate but they aren’t the same.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:40 AM on January 30, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by warriorqueen at 9:40 AM on January 30, 2021 [6 favorites]
...and I would have different recommendations
posted by warriorqueen at 9:44 AM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by warriorqueen at 9:44 AM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Oh. Hrmm. Conflict then. They are disagreeing about how to handle interactions with outside volunteers, but that seems to stem from fundamentally different approaches to communicating. Probably a bit of ask/vs guess. They are frustrated with each other. Each has the opinion that the other is making the work process unnecessarily difficult/conflict-y.
posted by stray at 12:08 PM on January 30, 2021
posted by stray at 12:08 PM on January 30, 2021
I found the book Getting To Yes very helpful in my thinking. Summary of key points here and here
Specifically, spending time building the sense of shared goals and mutual respect - starting the conversation with building agreement of what, on the highest level of they trying to do. How they will know if they've found a good solution (what are the criteria for evaluating ideas that they can agree on, where are the criteria different but can be respected) Eg: Goal is increasing partnership activity. Criteria is not exceeding available volunteer time (but open to exploring how available might expanded) or not exceeding a budget (unless new ways to fund are part of the plan)
From there, as you go into problem solving, you can zoom out and check how the proposals match the goals and criteria that they agree on. This helps shift if from personal to task oriented.
posted by metahawk at 2:07 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Specifically, spending time building the sense of shared goals and mutual respect - starting the conversation with building agreement of what, on the highest level of they trying to do. How they will know if they've found a good solution (what are the criteria for evaluating ideas that they can agree on, where are the criteria different but can be respected) Eg: Goal is increasing partnership activity. Criteria is not exceeding available volunteer time (but open to exploring how available might expanded) or not exceeding a budget (unless new ways to fund are part of the plan)
From there, as you go into problem solving, you can zoom out and check how the proposals match the goals and criteria that they agree on. This helps shift if from personal to task oriented.
posted by metahawk at 2:07 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Is either of the co-workers' processes "wrong" or are either interaction styles having bad, unintended results from an organizational point of view? If not, it sounds like someone needs to reassure them that having different processes and styles is ok, and that they should carry on. I mean, my outreach to donors might look one way and my colleague's might look another way, but if we're both building decent relationships and bringing in fundraising dollars, then there's not a problem. However, if one of us is not tracking donation amounts and dates, that is an organizational problem.
If they both have to work together on the same process and they disagree about what it looks like in practice, then I would focus on reviewing and re-designing the process if needed, not on solving the conflict of co-workers.
In the non-profit setting I would be *very* wary of the request they're making: for others to help them resolve interpersonal conflict. And the idea of 'setting up future precedent' makes me want to run away. I've seen that dynamic play out in numerous non-profits where a lot of the energy of the organization was being diverted away from the key mission and instead being spent on what is essentially "town meeting-style" couples counseling with employees who were having conflict with each other.
Flat hierarchy is doable, but does your organization have any guiding principles that can be pointed to to resolve this by invoking a mission or strategic point of view?
posted by cocoagirl at 5:51 AM on January 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
If they both have to work together on the same process and they disagree about what it looks like in practice, then I would focus on reviewing and re-designing the process if needed, not on solving the conflict of co-workers.
In the non-profit setting I would be *very* wary of the request they're making: for others to help them resolve interpersonal conflict. And the idea of 'setting up future precedent' makes me want to run away. I've seen that dynamic play out in numerous non-profits where a lot of the energy of the organization was being diverted away from the key mission and instead being spent on what is essentially "town meeting-style" couples counseling with employees who were having conflict with each other.
Flat hierarchy is doable, but does your organization have any guiding principles that can be pointed to to resolve this by invoking a mission or strategic point of view?
posted by cocoagirl at 5:51 AM on January 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
I agree 100% with cocoagirl's analysis after reading your update.
I think before you engage in mediation between the employees you probably want to ensure that your organization has a clear understanding of its goals with volunteers (apologies if you have this already but for me it's so fundamental I am mentioning it first.)
The Volunteer Management Handbook (I chose this one because the one I had for my VM course is even more dated) might be a good resource to ask both members to read and then agree on the process points where they have to agree. For example:
- schedule of external communications that are electronic or other mass means
- schedule of external contacts if it's a call or individual text/email system
- training plan and schedule
- check in during volunteer activity
- follow up/tracking/contact management or software use
Basically, from your description, I think it possibly would be helpful to see this not as conflict resolution or communication issue but a determination of which parts of the volunteer process are fundamental to the organization's values, mission, and activities and so require a consistent approach, and which parts are flexible for individual management.
If you have this already, or while you are developing that, I think this is a good guide to the mediation process. (I haven't had an opportunity to use it a lot, but I was involved in an organization where we had a conflict where we brought in a professional mediator at one point to both deal with it and help us understand how to deal with situations like it in the future, and this is pretty close to the process we went through.)
Note that it requires a mediator. But the reason I would definitely look at the volunteer processes first is that as a workplace, even in a flat organization, ultimately to have a good working environment everyone needs to agree on what success looks like and how each set of activities contributes to it. Otherwise you're not mediating between staff, you're mediating between people, and although that has some value it may not get you to smooth and professional interactions.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:56 AM on January 31, 2021
I think before you engage in mediation between the employees you probably want to ensure that your organization has a clear understanding of its goals with volunteers (apologies if you have this already but for me it's so fundamental I am mentioning it first.)
The Volunteer Management Handbook (I chose this one because the one I had for my VM course is even more dated) might be a good resource to ask both members to read and then agree on the process points where they have to agree. For example:
- schedule of external communications that are electronic or other mass means
- schedule of external contacts if it's a call or individual text/email system
- training plan and schedule
- check in during volunteer activity
- follow up/tracking/contact management or software use
Basically, from your description, I think it possibly would be helpful to see this not as conflict resolution or communication issue but a determination of which parts of the volunteer process are fundamental to the organization's values, mission, and activities and so require a consistent approach, and which parts are flexible for individual management.
If you have this already, or while you are developing that, I think this is a good guide to the mediation process. (I haven't had an opportunity to use it a lot, but I was involved in an organization where we had a conflict where we brought in a professional mediator at one point to both deal with it and help us understand how to deal with situations like it in the future, and this is pretty close to the process we went through.)
Note that it requires a mediator. But the reason I would definitely look at the volunteer processes first is that as a workplace, even in a flat organization, ultimately to have a good working environment everyone needs to agree on what success looks like and how each set of activities contributes to it. Otherwise you're not mediating between staff, you're mediating between people, and although that has some value it may not get you to smooth and professional interactions.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:56 AM on January 31, 2021
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posted by nebulawindphone at 9:14 AM on January 30, 2021 [3 favorites]