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Polishing Brings Out the Shine: How Do You Resolve a Conflict in the Workplace?

Polishing Brings Out the Shine: How Do You Resolve a Conflict in the Workplace?

A Look Back at Our Knowledge Session with Gimd 

When people work together, great results emerge. And sometimes tensions arise as well. A minor irritation or a conversation that stalls can, without anyone noticing, escalate into a serious conflict, resulting in Sickness Absence or absenteeism. For this reason, we at the FiTClub in Maarssen, part of theZekerArbo , organized the knowledge session “Rubbing Creates Shine—How Do You Resolve a Conflict?” After a group buffet, Remco Bouman from ZekerArbo opened the evening. Then Adeny van Engel, a confidential advisor and mediator at Gimd, took the attendees on a journey into the world of workplace conflicts.

In this blog post, we'll summarize the most important insights for you. 

Is something already going on in your team? Don’t wait until it escalates. Contact us ZekerArbo or email us directly at [email protected]. 

Why This Topic Matters 

Managers, HR professionals, case managers, and members of the management team are often the first to notice tensions. If you understand how a conflict arises and develops, you’ll be able to recognize it sooner. And by identifying issues early, you can prevent a disagreement from becoming a legal matter or escalating into Sickness Absence and absenteeism. It’s all about taking the right action at the right time. 

Is there already a case of Sickness Absence? In that case, a constructive conversation between the employer, the employee, and the company physician often helps get things moving again. Read our knowlegde hub how a three-way meeting works. 

Rubbing shoulders is part of working together 

Conflicts arise from a combination of objective contradictions—such as differing interests, resources, or roles—and subjective factors, such as how people perceive a situation and how they feel about it. They escalate when people feel unrecognized, become stuck in their assumptions, and come under pressure. 

The bottom line: a difference doesn't have to turn into a conflict, as long as it remains open to discussion. 

If it does escalate, it usually happens in recognizable stages: 

  • Tension: conflicting interests, unclear roles, irritations. 
  • Awareness: The parties sense that something isn’t quite right and perceive the difference in perspective as a conflict. 
  • Taking a Stand: Sides are chosen, it becomes “us versus them,” and communication becomes strategic. 
  • Escalation: Emotions take over, trust declines, and working together to resolve the issue gives way to blaming each other. 
Polishing Brings Out the Shine: How Do You Resolve a Conflict in the Workplace?

Glasl's Escalation Ladder 

A well-known model for identifying the source of a conflict is Friedrich Glasl’s escalation ladder. The ladder helps you assess which stage the conflict is in, how serious the situation is, and what intervention is appropriate. Glasl distinguishes three stages. 

1. The Rational Phase

The parties are still communicating in a businesslike manner and working together to find a solution that benefits everyone. Yet the discussions are already becoming more tense: the language is getting harsher, arguments are being used to convince the other side, and the common interest is taking a back seat. An early sign is that a dialogue is turning into a debate, in which each side insists that it is right. 

At this stage, a joint solution is still very much within reach, as long as people continue to listen to one another. 

Appropriate intervention: the time-out conversation. This is an accessible and positive intervention for early signs of tension, misunderstandings, or communication problems, as long as those involved are still willing to talk to one another. It consists of two individual introductory conversations lasting up to 30 minutes each, a joint conversation lasting up to two hours, and a brief debriefing with advice on next steps. The result: restored communication, greater mutual understanding, concrete working agreements, and the prevention of escalation or absenteeism. 

Would you like to request a time-out meeting? Send an email to [email protected] or call Gimd at 088 800 85 40. Are you a customer of ZekerArbo? Your dedicated customer team would be happy to help you.

2. The Emotional Phase

Now, emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness are driving behavior. People pigeonhole one another and talk about each other instead of with each other. They seek support from colleagues, which leads to the formation of factions within the team. Differences of opinion turn into hard-line, conflicting interests, and discrediting the other person becomes more important than finding a solution. 

What helps here is focusing on reestablishing contact and acknowledging emotions. 

Appropriate intervention: mediation. If the conflict has escalated further, mediation provides structure and a safe environment. An independent mediator facilitates a confidential process in which the parties retain ownership of the solution. Agreements can be documented in writing. 

Sometimes an employee first needs a confidential conversation with someone outside their own chain of command. For this purpose, an external confidential advisor can be a solution.

3. The Fighting Phase

In the final stage, the focus is on winning—or defeating the other party—even if that comes at the expense of one’s own interests. The tone becomes confrontational; harsh demands and threats are made, and the other party is viewed as an enemy. At the final rungs of the ladder, mediation is often no longer an option, and the only recourse left is an arbitrator or a judge. 

The lesson is clear: take action before this stage, because by this point the relationship is usually already severely damaged. The sooner you take action, the less drastic the intervention can be. 

Are you unsure which stage a conflict is in? Talking it through helps. Contact Gimd for consultation and advice, or call ZekerArbo at 088 277 4444. 

When Factions Form: Group Mediation

Sometimes a conflict doesn’t arise between two people, but within an entire team. It often starts innocently enough. One colleague feels left out of the planning process, while another is annoyed by how an agreement is interpreted. People mention it casually by the coffee machine, but not during team meetings. Gradually, people start seeking support from one another, and before you know it, the team is no longer sitting together at the table, but across from one another.

To an outside observer, the team appears to have communication issues. Meetings are either shorter or longer than usual, but yield little results. Agreements aren’t honored, or everyone seems to interpret them differently. People talk more about each other than with each other. And more and more often, the focus is no longer on the substance, but on who’s right and which side you’re on.

The tricky part is that it’s often not just one conflict. Multiple tensions are intertwined, and at some point, no one knows exactly who has a problem with whom, or where it actually started. The atmosphere becomes more tense, and eventually, that shows up in the numbers: more Sickness Absence, people leaving, or complaints coming in.

Yet there is still something valuable in many of those teams: the desire to work things out together. No one enjoys going to a workplace where there’s tension. That’s exactly when group mediation can make a difference. An independent mediator brings the entire team—or part of it—together and provides a safe, structured setting. Within that setting, there’s room to voice concerns, listen to one another, and identify the real sticking points. The team retains ownership of the solution and collaboratively establishes new agreements on how they want to move forward.

Do you recognize this scenario in a team within your organization? If so, don’t wait until the divisions become even more entrenched. The sooner you take action, the greater the chance that cooperation will be restored. Gimd supports teams through group mediation, helping to create space for cooperation once again. Not sure if this is the right approach for your situation? Contact us, and we’d be happy to discuss it with you.

Polishing Brings Out the Shine: How Do You Resolve a Conflict in the Workplace?

Your role: three questions 

During the evening, the attendees discussed case studies together: What signs do you recognize, where does the conflict fall on the ladder, and what intervention is appropriate? This may have yielded the most important lesson for managers, HR professionals, and case managers. When tension arises, ask yourself three questions: 

  1. What am I actually seeing happen? 
  1. Where does this fall on the escalation ladder? 
  1. What intervention is appropriate in this situation? 

You don't have to resolve the conflict yourself. However, it is important that you identify it in a timely manner and refer the matter carefully. 

As a manager or HR professional, do you want to improve your skills in having difficult conversations with your team? Check out our workshops and training sessions. 

Prevention is better than cure 

Stress at work often starts small. Sometimes it helps if an employee can talk to someone quickly and easily. With Yet , employees have anonymous access to one-on-one sessions with psychologists and coaches, without a referral or wait time. Yet is part of the subscriptions MKB FiT Premium and MKB FiT Excellent. 

Would you like to know which subscription plan is right for your organization? Compare our subscriptions. 

A conflict doesn’t have to be the end
With timely identification, appropriate support, and careful referral, there is room for recovery, clarity, new agreements, and lasting cooperation. A rough surface can shine—if you address it in time. 

We’d like to thank everyone who attended for the open discussions, the relatable case studies, and the enjoyable drinks reception. And thanks to The House of Brout for their hospitality. 

Is something getting stuck within your organization?
Would you like to bounce ideas off us about a situation in your team? We’d be happy to help you figure it out. 

Stay up to date 

Would you like to attend the next informational session? Sign up for our updates and check out the ZekerArbo FiTClub events. Looking for more practical tips? Read more on our blog or in the knowlegde hub. 

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