A business dispute is becoming entrenched

Correspondence may be hardening positions while costs rise and management attention is diverted. The dispute might concern a contract, payment, property, professional services or an ongoing trading relationship.

Commercial Mediation provides a setting in which the parties can examine risks, interests and practical settlement options with an independent mediator or mediation team. Legal advisers can remain involved. The parties retain control over whether they agree a resolution.

Explore Commercial Mediation · How Co-Mediation can help

Shareholders, partners or family members are in conflict

When people share a business, assets or a family history, the financial issues may be inseparable from questions of trust, recognition and control. Continuing together and separating can both feel difficult.

Mediation can create space to explore workable arrangements: how decisions are made, how the relationship might continue, or how a negotiated separation could work. The process can accommodate several parties and their advisers, with joint and separate discussions where appropriate.

Commercial and relationship disputes · Meet our mediation team

Senior leaders or board members are in conflict

Leaders may stop communicating directly, revisit decisions or draw colleagues into opposing camps. Personal relationships, employment issues, ownership and governance questions can overlap.

We can help the people involved discuss what is preventing progress and consider an appropriate process. This may involve mediation, facilitated discussions or individual conflict coaching. Where commercial and working relationships overlap, the approach needs to address both.

Workplace Mediation · Commercial Mediation · Choosing a mediation team

A grievance is brewing—or already underway

A concern may have become a formal complaint, or people may be considering one because earlier conversations have gone nowhere. It is worth asking what needs to be resolved: disputed facts, conduct, a damaged relationship, or a combination.

For relationship conflict, an early conversation or mediation should ordinarily be considered before automatically defaulting to a grievance procedure. Formal investigation may still be necessary. If a grievance is already underway, the timing and suitability of any mediation should be considered alongside it.

Read our Mediation or Grievance guide · Explore Workplace Mediation

A working relationship has broken down

A manager and employee, or two colleagues, may be avoiding each other, interpreting messages negatively or struggling to have an ordinary conversation. Disagreement about performance, expectations or working style can become personal.

A facilitated conversation or mediation can help people explain their concerns, hear the other perspective and discuss how they will work together. Individual conflict coaching can help someone prepare for a difficult conversation or consider how to approach the conflict.

Workplace Mediation · Sue Granshaw’s conflict coaching expertise · Antony Sendall’s mediation and coaching experience

A team is struggling to work together

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There may be factions, repeated complaints, strained meetings or several grievances involving overlapping groups of people. Treating every disagreement as a separate two-person dispute may miss the wider pattern.

We can discuss a team or multi-party process, with individual preparation and an appropriate combination of group and smaller meetings. The aim is to understand what needs to change and help the team develop practical working arrangements.

Workplace and team mediation · Carefully composed co-mediation teams · Sue Granshaw’s team mediation experience

Working relationships after allegations or an investigation

An investigation may reach an outcome while leaving people uncertain about working together. Trust may remain low, and the effects can extend beyond those directly involved in allegations of bullying or harassment.

Where suitable and voluntary, mediation or facilitated discussion can help people consider future communication and working arrangements. It must not replace necessary investigation, safeguarding or accountability, or require someone to reconcile. Serious misconduct, regulatory requirements and matters needing authoritative factual determination may require a formal process.

Suitability needs careful assessment, including power imbalances, participants’ wishes and whether people can take part safely.

Choosing an appropriate process · Sue Granshaw’s HR and conflict-resolution expertise

Change is creating tension or division

A restructure, merger, new leadership or changed responsibilities can expose disagreements about roles, fairness and the future. People may feel unheard while managers struggle to move decisions forward.

Facilitated conversations, mediation or coaching can help address the relationship conflict surrounding change. This work should sit alongside the organisation’s decision-making and consultation processes, with clarity about what participants can influence.

Explore our resolution processes · HR consultancy and mediation experience