Two different services divisions of a large corporation, are required, for cost benefit reasons, to dovetail the way they support a largely common customer base. In order to accomplish this new way of service delivery and customer care, the Directors were asked to work together to establish a common set of practices.

Conflict:
In the process of creating this common set of practices, they enter into a seemingly endless series of meetings, with nothing being resolved. They bring their issues to their VPs, who in examining the situation, don’t understand where the problem is or why this is such a big deal.

The VPs’ frustrations with their Directors were growing.

Resolution:
Lidia was invited by the SVP to provide a facilitated dialog between the Director teams. In the course of an initial meeting, this particular conflict became evident and was brought to the surface through her facilitation and questions.

In facilitating the dialogue, differences were brought up in the direction that was being provided to the Directors from their VPs- one was  prescriptive and the other very aloof. The series of breakdowns in collaboration that occurred were a result of these incompatible directions.

The root cause was shared with the VPs resulting in the leaders recognizing that they needed to collaborate. VP #1 recognized that the direction being provided was impacting Directors #1 ability to collaborate, and by modifying her style, she could develop a better relationship with VP #2. That would then free-up Directors #1 to be more productive in their meetings with VP #2.

VP #2 also recognized the pressures that Directors #1 and #2 were under, which enabled more sensitivity and understanding to the situation the VPs had placed their Directors in.

Conclusion:
The discussion gave Directors #2 a different perspective of the situation, and they were less judgmental and reactionary as they gained an appreciation for the pressures and direction that Directors #1 were under.

As result of the facilitation, there were changes in effectiveness of processes and the impact was reflected in customer impacting metrics shortly after Lidia’s engagement and the Directors’ resulting successful collaboration.