What I’ve Been Reading

Building agreement: using emotions as you negotiate By Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro This book, by two of the very big names in conflict resolution at Harvard, is based on the premise that the best way to manage emotions in conflict is to work on the underlying core concerns that cause those emotions. The authors […]

Inside Out: How conflict professionals can use self-reflection to help their clients by Gary Friedman I came across this book by accident and then couldn’t understand why I hadn’t discovered it earlier! The book is essentially all about managing emotions in conflict (those of the parties, and those of the conflict professional). And by managing

Think again: The power of knowing what you don’t know By Adam Grant This book is essential reading for anyone interested in reflective practice (at its heart, a process of thinking again). Grant emphasizes that it is the process of re-thinking that is important, not the outcome. Rethinking does not have to change your mind,

Schön, D.A. (1983) The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Donald Schön’s book is the key text on reflective practice. First published in 1983, it led to a real commitment to reflective practice being introduced into many professional disciplines, including conflict resolution. The book begins by explaining the difference between competence and artistry, showing

If you are serious about becoming a conflict resolution practitioner who is more than just a basically competent practitioner, then this book by Michael Lang is essential reading. This book introduces the concept of reflective practice and how to apply it in your work as a conflict resolution practitioner. It comes with guides for reflection,

Wait, What? And Life’s other Essential Questions, by James E. Ryan. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m rather obsessed by questioning! It’s an essential part of my work as a conflict management coach and conflict specialist. It’s also a fundamental life skill. This book is an extended version of a

Jay Shetty’s book is subtitled “Train your mind for peace and purpose every day”. Shetty first met a monk when he was eighteen years old and attending business school in London. This meeting led to him joining an ashram after he graduated from college, and living there for three years. He subsequently left the ashram

The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion – by Jonathan Haidt This book was written in 2012, but I recently re-read it and found that it still applies beautifully to the current political drama playing out in the US at the moment and the challenges of COVID. Haidt explores why

Warren Berger, the author of The Book Of Beautiful Questions, describes himself as a “questionologist”. His background as a journalist sparked his interest in questions as a tool for gathering information for a story, but he realised that questioning was also useful for solving problems, being creative and developing connections. Research has shown that children