MY Epiphany
The Situation
My Epiphany
A Complex Mediation successfully conducted by Anthony Munday
Mina Parmar, CEO, Assured HR
“In 2020, I was a governor of a school in the London Borough of Harrow.
I had been selected as the Chair of the Grievance Panel, because of my significant experience of HR at both a strategic and operational level.
The effectiveness of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) at the school had been heavily compromised for several years.
There had been significant workplace conflict involving the Head Teacher, Deputy Head, and several other members of the SLT.
The impact upon the school, other colleagues and the brand reputation of the school can be imagined.
All had previously been friends until one was appointed Head Teacher.
Personal and professional relationships had broken down.
There had been a series of grievances alleging bullying by the Head Teacher. The Grievances had not been upheld.
Cases had been lodged with the Employment Tribunal. People had been arranged.
Some of them had had periods of absence from work, citing stress.
Staff Association representatives to support
Communication between them was formal, mostly by email.
I recommended mediation as an intervention to break the cycle of toxicity.
Other governors were sceptical of the chances of success.
I explained that I knew a very experienced mediator, who had a proven track record of dealing successfully, with complex issues.
I was aware of the unique ‘Icebreaker stage ‘which Anthony Munday had developed to create authentic trust and confidence in him as a mediator.
Anthony met with the six individuals and created the environment to move forward to the formal stages of mediation.
So successful had he been in creating that necessary trust and confidence in him as a mediator, that of the six persons, who had been scheduled to be supported by staff association specialists, all felt that they were sufficiently confidant not to do so.
Anthony facilitated the creation of a Written Agreement between the participants. Albeit a confidential document, they wished the document shared with the Board of governors and the entire SLT.
I witnessed the powerful and positive impact of Anthony Munday as a mediator, dealing with a complex situation.
The challenge faced by mediators, in creating rapport, trust and confidence with participants is overcome by his unique ‘icebreaker ‘stage.
Anthony deserves a wider recognition for his innovatory ideas in mediation.”
Why Epiphany?
The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘epiphany ‘as “a sudden and surprising moment of understanding.”
The Collins English Dictionary defines ‘epiphany ‘as “moment of sudden insight or understanding.”
My epiphany occurred in January 2020, just before the first lockdowns in the UK.
Mina PARMAR of Assured HR and I were discussing business development.
She described a highly charged and complex conflict involving several members of the SLT of an Academy of which she was a Governor. She was the HR expert on the Board.
Mina described a very toxic culture which was impacting negatively on the SLT.
Five of the members of the SLT had submitted a series of grievances concerning the style and behaviours of the Headteacher. They alleged bullying. The three sets of grievances had not been upheld.
The situation continued to deteriorate. The Governing Body were considering dismissals of those who had raised grievances.
This drastic step had potential significant consequences for the individuals, the SLT and the organisation. There were implications for the brand reputation of the school.
Three different staff associations were involved in representing the six people.
Cases had been lodged with the Employment Tribunal.
Mina recalled my professional expertise as a workplace mediator and advised the Board of Governors of my availability to assist them solve a seemingly intractable problem.
Her request for my services was like a bolt out of the blue, a true epiphany.
My experience of developing rapport with victims, witnesses and suspects was my foundation for mediation.
I found a highly charged and complex set of circumstances that had become deeply ingrained amongst the participants.
The concept of the Pre -Mediation Meeting or ‘Icebreaker’ was, of course, unknown to both the direct participants and the representatives of the three staff associations.
Once I had explained the rationale of this unique stage, and how it would be conducted, it was warmly received by them all.
My Active Listening skills and knowledge of NLP assisted me to appreciate the extent of the trauma that I was dealing with.
Since I had left the police some ten years previously, my business focus was on business development. I worked with clients facilitating them to become leaders in their business, understand and practice a coaching style of leadership, rather than command and control.
The other aspect that I took a keen interest was for them to genuinely understand the difference between working in the business and working on the business.
Working in the business was narrow -focused, often on tactical aspects of the performance of tasks by others or which could usefully and properly be delegated to others, or aspects that they were not passionate about.
Similarly employing people to undertake tasks mostly to ‘keep it in the family ‘was not necessarily the most productive use of time.
Work -Life Balance had meaning.
These challenges were magnified as many of my clients were SME’s. The business owner had a skill and created a business based on that expertise. Unfortunately, running a business was another matter.
Working on the business was more strategic, both in how to develop the business, and their professional skill set.
It was an honour to create that rapport and trust and confidence with the business owners, so that I accessed the person, not their role. This aspect became increasingly significant to me; far more so that the numbers associated with the business plan.
It became evident to me that the simple truths described in the following quote by Steve Jobs applied to me:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Don’t be trapped by dogma -which is living with the results of other people ‘s thinking.
Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Everything else is secondary.”
The Task
1.Protect the brand reputation of the organisation.
2. Prevent the loss of valued senior staff and the cost of recruiting replacements.
3. Repair fractured business relationships between former friends.
4. Re- establish a high – performing Senior Leadership Team.
5. Reduce the stress for the Governing Body.
6. Enhance the school experience for the pupils.
The Action / Approach
The Mediation Process
The proposed mediation process is as follows:
- Day One. Icebreaker.
- Day Two. Individual Meetings.
- Day Three. Joint Meeting.
- Day Four (After One Month) Review.
- I include a contingency provision within the Written Agreement at the Joint Meeting. This typically takes two hours with the participants in the event of a conflict arising with the participants.
The Result
1.Repair of broken business relationships amongst the Senior Leadership Team.
2.Prevent the loss of valuable staff.
3. Prevent the significant recruitment costs of replacing any or all of the six participants in the mediation.
4. Protected the brand reputation of the organisation.
