Business_Spotlight_-_Nr.2_2020

54 Business Spotlight 2/2020 LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE

EASY ENGLISH

Mediating

conflict

Nicht immer sind alle der gleichen Meinung.

Kommt es zu Konflikten, müssen diese gelöst,

auf jeden Fall aber geschlichtet werden. Wie

das auf Englisch geschieht, lesen Sie hier.

EASY AUDIO PLUS

D

ifferences of opinion are common in the work-

place. Examples include colleagues disagree-

ing about a process, a deadline or some other

aspect of their daily work. In many cases, these

differences of opinion are resolved easily by

the people involved. But when such disagree-

ments get in the way of effective collaboration or risk

damaging relationships, it is important to be able to

step in and mediate.

Question

As you read the following dialogue, look for the

things that Kerstin does to mediate the conflict and

find a satisfactory resolution. How many can you

find?

Dialogue

Phil: It’s simple. We need to respond to my cus-

tomer’s request and deliver the best solu-

tion we can within the time available.

Mo n i c a : But it’s not that easy. We need an extra week

to get the quality right.

Phil: They’ll never agree to that.

Monica: But there’s not enough time to create a real-

ly good solution, and that means delivering

something substandard. That’s not good

enough, especially as I’m responsible for

quality. It will damage our reputation and

external relationships — and affect us inter-

nally if the team thinks that we’re happy to

deliver substandard work.

Kerstin: Right, you both have different opinions,

and we need to find a way forward. Can we

at least agree on that in the first instance?

Phil and Monica, together: Yes, we can.

Kerstin: As I see it is, Phil, you want to prioritize the

customer’s deadline, even if it means not

delivering our best work. And, Monica, you

want to prioritize the quality of our work,

even if it means delivering the work late or

pushing back the deadline.

Phil: Well, that’s one way of putting it. But I also

think quality is important. We just can’t risk

our reputation or customer relationships

by delivering late.

Monica: Yes, Kerstin, that’s what I’m saying. But I

understand that we also need to respect our

customers’ deadlines and maintain good re-

lationships.

Kerstin: OK, good. Well, at least we have some com-

mon ground. You both understand the im-

portance of customer relations, our own

reputation and quality. Let’s think about

what kind of compromise is possible, so

that we can find a way forward. OK?

Monica: I suppose so.

Phil: Well, it’s not ideal. But go on.

Kerstin: Can we get a higher-quality response to the

client without it taking an extra week?

Monica: My team could reallocate some of their

work so they are available to focus on this

project. But then I’ll need support from you

on another project next week, Phil.

Phil: Sure, I can help you with that. If you give

me extra support this week, we’ll be able

to deliver the quality you want, and I can

spend some time next week helping your

team catch up on whatever they don’t get

done for other customers this week.

Monica: Yes, that works for me.

Kerstin: Great. So, we have some agreement and

compromise from both of you. Monica

will focus her team on this customer for the

next week and postpone some other things.

In return, Phil is going to help Monica and

her team next week with the other project

work they’ve postponed.

Phil: Sounds good. That works for me, too.

Thanks, Monica.

affect sb. [E(fekt]

, sich auf jmdn. auswirken

catch up on sth.

[)kÄtS (Vp Qn]

, etw. nach-, aufholen

common ground

[)kQmEn (graUnd]

, gemeinsamer Nenner

deadline [(dedlaIn]

, (Liefer-)Termin

get in the way of sth.

[)get In DE (weI Ev]

, etw. im Weg stehen

in the first instance

[In DE )f§:st (InstEns]

, zunächst einmal

maintain sth. [meIn(teIn]

, etw. aufrechterhalten

mediate (a conflict)

[(mi:dieIt] , (einen Kon-

flikt) schlichten, (in einem

Konflikt) vermitteln

postpone sth.

[pEUst(pEUn]

, etw. verschieben

prioritize sth.

[praI(QrItaIz]

, etw. Priorität einräumen

put sth. [pUt]

, hier: etw. formulieren

reallocate sth.

[)ri:(ÄlEUkeIt]

, etw. neu zuweisen

resolution [)rezE(lu:S&n]

, Lösung

resolve sth. [ri(zQlv]

, etw. lösen

respond to sth.

[ri(spQnd tu]

, hier: auf etw. reagieren

response [ri(spQns]

, Rückmeldung;

hier auch: Lösung

step in [)step (In]

, einschreiten, eingreifen

that works for me

[(DÄt w§:ks fE )mi:]

, hier: diese Lösung kann

ich akzeptieren

AUDIO + PLUS

You can try our

exercises on this

topic on Business

Spotlight Audio

as well as in our

exercise booklet,

Business Spotlight

Plus. To order, go

to http://www.aboshop.

spotlight-verlag.de

MIKE HOGAN

is a co-author of Business English

for Beginners A1 + A2 and Basis for

Business B1 + B2 (Cornelsen).

Contact: [email protected]