In my mediation training seminars, there is a very strong emphasis on the importance of soft skills in managing disputes conflict.
Where managers fall short is often not what they say which can often be totally justified, but rather how they say it.
When human resource staff become mediators as such they need to avoid the perception of pre-judging.
With this in mind, consider Peter Oborne is the Daily Telegraph's analysis on George Osborne's speech yesterday announcing the CSR.
"Lurking behind Osborne’s very detailed (and mostly fair-minded and sensible) announcements are thousands upon thousands of individual tragedies in the shape of lost jobs and falling living standards. Osborne scarcely seemed to acknowledge or be aware of this. He made a traditional Chancellor’s budget speech with a number of niggly and irritating jibes at the opposition. His overall strategy was not to address a collective national problem, but to create a dividing line between the Tory Coalition and Labour."
This is the danger. You run the risk of giving trade unions more of an ability to demonise your opponent(e.g Chancellor) and you make it just a little bit more difficult for public sector managers to manage.
Most political careers end in failure. Could the seeds of this person's destruction be due not to the substance of what he is doing, but the style?
Justin Patten, Mediation Skills Trainer