When two Directors fall out, the reverberations can run throughout the organisation and seriously disrupt the business. So it needs managing quickly.

The initial signs were not good, clear indications from both sides that they had had enough of the other and were in no mood to compromise. The first joint meeting began with grunts and glares over the coffee. So the discussion was turned to the business, how they thought it was being affected, what they would do about them  if they were the Chairman - which resulted in the first agreement. With their business hats now firmly on, they began to unpick what had caused their mistrust of each other, looking at it as an information gathering exercise - very impersonal and objective - until the re-organisation a year ago emerged as the root cause. Responsibilities not clarified, reporting lines blurred, staff moved from the control of one to the other with little reason, poor communication at the early stages when things began to go wrong. Eventually what had started as a problem for the business became a business problem they could work on together and as they did so, little by little, the trust began to be re-established. A joint report resulted for the Board on refinements to the reorganised structure. Meanwhile colleagues began to notice their improving relationship and the tension in the whole organisation gradually relaxed.