This is a question we get asked a lot.
My answer always is that it will be great for my business if they want a mediation with the whole team, as we charge per person in a mediation, but I'm not sure it would be good for their business as it probably isn't what they need and they will be spending money unnecessarily.
Whilst it may seem like a very complex situation which is out of control, try not to worry too much. When individuals have issues they often create factions within the organisation where people have to choose sides, and usually they will choose the side of their own manager or closest allies.
The individuals who then have the issue with each other then use their "supporters" as ammunition against the other. The poor people involved in formal investigations (HR and managers) have to interview loads of people and the conclusion is likely to be a lack of evidence to prove whatever - and at the end of the painful process there are no solutions and things are a whole lot worse!
Companies often contact me and tell me about a huge issue involving lots of people and teams falling out. The conversation I always have with them is about the root cause of the issues, because I know from almost 30 years of dealing with these situations that a large proportion of employees will be what I class as "followers", ie the employees who don't really have a beef with anybody, they just want to get on with their jobs, but they have to be on one side or the other.
Once the issue is resolved with the people at the heart of a dispute "followers" will organically repair their working relationships - the worst case for them is sometimes a bit of a facilitated conversation is needed to help them get back on track. I would always suggest giving this some time to see if a full team session is required, but many clients ask us to facilitate team sessions straight after mediations with individuals - this is fine too.
What's critical is dealing with the people at the heart of the issues, and usually that requires help from a professionally trained mediator. If you have an internal mediator talk to them as they should be able to help (make sure they are professionally trained - see this blog if you're not sure why).
If you don't have internal mediation skills we'd be more than happy to help your employees to move forward. In probably just one day, the people at the heart of these issues will be able to have proper conversations with each other under a without prejudice confidentiality agreement. With a little help they will talk and (most importantly) listen to each other and work out their own solutions so they change how they work together moving forward.
Our mediations run at just over 97% which reach a resolution, so the chances of them working this out are incredibly high - all we ask is that they want to find solutions - it's OK and normal if they can't see what those solutions could be - if they could then they wouldn't need mediation! 😀
