Dealing with conflict is a natural part of doing business. The difference between a dispute that becomes debilitating and one that gets resolved is often a result of the way the parties deal with the conflict, says Ned Parks, a partner in Signal Tree Resolutions.
The two-year-old Akron company helps businesses learn to deal with potential and existing conflict. Companies including Nestle USA and Akron’s Main Street Gourmet have used Signal Tree to train employees on how to deal with conflict.
Parks and his partners, Albert Couch and Norma Delp, have been called on to both conduct conflict resolution training classes for employees and to mediate disputes.
“Sometimes we are hired after a conflict has already occurred, and sometimes they’ll ask us for help and they’re not really sure what the problem is,” says Parks.
Signal Tree has helped resolve disputes between departments, between individuals, between businesses, or, one case, for a company that was “just really unfriendly to work in.”
He says it’s often more effective to bring in someone to mediate a dispute because that person is trained in conflict management, is impartial and is not a coworker of anyone involved.
“The beauty is that it’s someone from the outside who’s doing it,” he says. “It’s a safe environment because we don’t work with them. As soon as this project is over, they’ll probably never see us again, so they feel very comfortable telling us what they’ve got on their minds, and we can distill that information down and say, ‘These are the common themes, this is the next recommended step … ”
Parks emphasizes that mediation is different from arbitration, in which an arbitrator, frequently a lawyer, is hired to resolved a dispute by making a decision for both parties.
“In mediation, the mediator doesn’t make the decision, the people do,” he says. “It still can be (legally) binding. They (both sides) come to their own decision. It’s little more time-consuming but a lot more rewarding and a lot longer lasting.”
Mediators are not substitutes for attorneys. While many attorneys are trained as mediators, mediators by trade are specialists in problem-solving, not the law.
” Most conflict has nothing to do with the law,” Parks says. “We’re here to help solve the problem, the attorneys are here to say if the resolution is legal.
“Too often in this society we say, ‘I can’t do anything because I don’t know about the law.’ Well, you can certainly make an agreement to get along with someone. There’s nothing illegal about that. All I am practicing is peacemaking.” How to reach: Signal Tree Resolutions, (330) 867-3247
