★★★★★ 50+ five-star Google reviews from workplaces, government agencies and communities · Read client stories
In fifteen years of dispute resolution practice we have worked inside more than fifty government and business organisations, from ombudsman offices and regulators to universities, health services and large corporates. The setting changes. The pattern underneath rarely does: a small issue everyone decided to manage around, a process that arrived late, and people responding to the silence as much as to the original concern.
15+
years of dispute resolution practice
50+
government and business organisations
50+
five star Google reviews
Where we work
Find your sector and discover the pressures we see and the support we offer to help.
Government & Public Sector
Government agencies can strengthen conflict management, complaints handling, difficult conversations and complex decision-making through practical, fair and consistent approaches.
Decisions that have to be fair, consistent and defensible, made by people who are already stretched, with every step open to scrutiny.
Ombudsman, Regulatory & Complaints Bodies
Specialist support for ombudsman, regulatory and complaints teams helps build capability in early resolution, conciliation, communication and high-conflict matter management.
Rising volumes, emotionally charged contacts and complex matters that stall, while the office is expected to model the very fairness it oversees.
Insurance
Insurance teams can strengthen communication, negotiation, de-escalation and complaints handling skills for complex and high-stakes customer interactions.
High-stakes claims conversations where the customer is under strain, the answer may be no, and the interaction still has to hold trust.
Financial Services
Clear, fair and human-centred dispute resolution practices help financial services organisations manage complaints, difficult conversations and customer conflict while maintaining trust.
Regulatory expectations around complaints, customers in financial stress, and staff asked to be both firm and fair on the same call.
Legal & Professional Services
For professionals working in complex and high-pressure environments, we build capability in negotiation, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution and difficult client conversations.
Demanding clients, demanding partners, and professionals expected to negotiate hard while keeping the relationship intact.
Corporate & Enterprise
Strong organisations need leaders and teams who can address conflict early, communicate clearly and navigate difficult workplace relationships with confidence.
Leaders who put off the hard conversation until it becomes a formal complaint, and teams who have learned to work around the problem.
Universities & Higher Education
Universities benefit from practical strategies for navigating student complaints, workplace conflict, difficult interactions and complex conversations with fairness and confidence.
Student complaints, staff grievances and academic disputes that cross faculties and policies, each one carrying reputational weight.
Health & Human Services
In emotionally demanding environments, we help build the skills and systems needed to manage complaints, conflict and challenging interactions while supporting staff wellbeing.
Frontline teams absorbing distress every day, complaints landing on people who are already tired, and turnover that follows unresolved tension.
Transport & Infrastructure
Complex operational environments require strong communication and conflict capability, particularly when managing workplace issues, stakeholder concerns and challenging conversations.
Large, dispersed workforces, safety-critical operations and stakeholder concerns that surface as workplace tension long before they surface as a formal issue.
Construction & Property
Early intervention, stronger communication and practical conflict resolution skills can help construction and property organisations prevent workplace and commercial disputes from escalating.
Tight margins, contract pressure and site relationships where a disagreement can turn into a commercial dispute within a week.
Not-for-Profit & Community Organisations
Purpose-led organisations are supported to navigate conflict, stakeholder relationships and challenging conversations while protecting trust, connection and organisational purpose.
Purpose-driven people, stretched resources, and board, staff and community relationships that carry more history than any policy covers.
Workplace, HR & People Teams
HR and People teams gain practical tools for mediation, conflict coaching, early intervention and managing difficult conversations before workplace issues become entrenched.
Being handed the conflict after it has hardened, when the formal process is the only tool that feels available.
How we work in your sector
A FACILITATED CONVERSATION, BRISBANE
Training should never be abstract. Programs are built for a specific team's legislation, context and real conversations, delivered in the room, then embedded with follow-up.
The same holds for mediation, facilitation and consulting. We start by understanding the pressures your sector puts on people, the procedures that govern them and the outcomes you have to reach. Then we choose the process. Not every matter needs the same one: some need coaching, some facilitation, some mediation, and some a clear management decision.
Who you will work with
Shiv Martin is the founder and director of Shiv Martin Consulting: a nationally accredited mediator, lawyer and trainer with more than fifteen years in dispute resolution, including years inside ombudsman offices and complaints management.
She is supported by an expert panel of mediators, investigators, facilitators, lawyers and former regulatory officers, so the person in your room has sat in rooms like yours before. Our work spans Australia and New Zealand, in person and online.
SHIV MARTIN, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
Recent work, by sector
De-identified examples from real engagements across government, regulatory and organisational settings. Details are changed where confidentiality requires.
OMBUDSMAN, REGULATORY & COMPLAINTS
Conciliation skills for an ombudsman team
An ombudsman office strengthening its early resolution capability needed practical skills for conciliation and complex complaint handling.
Staff reported more confidence and clarity on complex matters; leadership saw more consistent early resolution across the team.
GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SECTOR
Five-day accredited mediation training, federal department
A federal government department needed tribunal-facing staff trained in mediation inside its own statutory context.
The whole cohort trained together in their own regulatory frame rather than attending generic external courses.
GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SECTOR
Leadership conflict skills, government-owned corporation
Leaders were managing difficult conversations, workplace tensions and performance issues in a high-pressure operational environment.
Leaders reported improved confidence handling challenging conversations, and a more proactive, supportive leadership culture.
LEGAL & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Wellbeing in dispute resolution, tribunal team
Tribunal practitioners were carrying emotionally demanding workloads and needed support to sustain performance and wellbeing.
Participants reported more confidence managing emotional pressure and clearer strategies for sustainable practice.
CORPORATE & ENTERPRISE
People systems and retention, growing business
A rapidly scaling organisation faced challenges with staff retention, grievance handling and performance conversations.
Leaders gained clarity and confidence managing people issues, with more consistency and less escalation across the business.
Recent work, by sector
De-identified examples from real engagements across government, regulatory and organisational settings. Details are changed where confidentiality requires.
We are proud to support teams from the following organisations
Fifty-plus organisations across government, regulatory, corporate and community settings.
Tell us what is happening
Share a few lines about the situation and the sector you work in, and we will come back with a clear view on the right next step.
Call or text 0433 904 303 · contact@shivmartin.com