Boardroom Mediation

Rather than letting conflicts dwell unresolved, boardroom mediation can help conflicting parties to find and agree on an appropriate solution.

Mediation is about facilitating people to find a way forward rather than who is right or wrong. By exploring what really matters, complex problems are broken down and compromise and, workable solutions are found.

Critical to finding this compromise is accepting that during a boardroom dispute (be this about whether or not the CEO is fit to run the business, succession planning or a commercial deal), emotion can overwhelm reason.

This is typically because people have become stuck in defending their position, instead of being open to finding a more creative way to work through the dispute and settle their concerns.

Finding a way forward

Disputes are rarely as simple as they appear so our CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) mediators (Alison Gill and Eleanor Evans) take the time to work out the emotional drivers of what may appear to be irrational behaviour, using the following approach.

1. Understanding: we talk to both parties to understand the background to the dispute
2. Resolution: we bring the parties together to work through the dispute
3. Agreement: we help define the agreement that will resolve the issues

During this process, we find that many of the skills we use to carry out board evaluations come in very useful for helping senior directors to work through a dispute.

If you’d like to talk to one of our CEDR qualified mediators about how we might be able to help you, please email tellmemore@bvalco.com to let us know a good time for us to call you back.