19 Best Books on Conflict Resolution

If the threat of raised voices, emotional outbursts, and public discord makes you want to hide under the conference room table, you’re not alone. Conflict, or the fear of it, can be exhausting. But as this powerful book argues, conflict doesn’t have to be unpleasant. In fact, properly channeled, conflict can be the most valuable tool we have at our disposal for deepening relationships, solving problems, and coming up with new ideas.

As the mastermind behind some of the highest-performing teams at Amazon, Twitter, and Slack, Buster Benson spent decades facilitating hard conversations in stressful environments. In this book, Buster reveals the psychological underpinnings of awkward, unproductive conflict and the critical habits anyone can learn to avoid it. Armed with a deeper understanding of how arguments, you’ll be able to:

  •  Remain confident when you’re put on the spot
  •  Diffuse tense moments with a few strategic questions
  •  Facilitate creative solutions even when your team has radically different perspectives

Why Are We Yelling will shatter your assumptions about what makes arguments productive. You’ll find yourself having fewer repetitive, predictable fights once you’re empowered to identify your biases, listen with an open mind, and communicate well.

The human longing for respect and dignity is deep and pervasive. Yet, while resolving more than 300 workplace conflicts, author Anna Maravelas has met thousands of individuals struggling with tension and mistrust.

Creating a Drama-Free Workplace contains strategies to avoid and reverse these troubling trends. Learn why trust and connectedness slip through our fingers despite our yearnings for workplaces that are grounded in collaboration and success.

Stop common missteps before they walk out the door with your most valuable assets―trust, morale, and productivity. You can create the environments you desire and deserve with these proven skills grounded in neuroscience.

In this book you will learn how to:

• Take the drama out of disagreement and enhance your ability to problem solve.
• Eliminate the 5 root causes of workplace tension.
• Be hard on the problem and soft on the people and create lasting alliances.
• Preserve your integrity by talking to people rather than about them.
• Replace bitterness about the past with a shared responsibility for the future.

Knowing how to transform conflict into collaboration affects the outcome of every interaction, challenge, and opportunity.

Incivility is silently chipping away at people, organizations, and our economy. Slights, insensitivities, and rude behaviors can cut deeply. Moreover, incivility hijacks focus. Even if people want to perform well, they can’t. Customers too are less likely to buy from a company with an employee who is perceived as rude. Ultimately, incivility cuts the bottom line.

In Mastering Civility, Christine Porath shows how people can enhance their influence and effectiveness with civility. Combining scientific research with fascinating evidence from popular culture and fields such as neuroscience, medicine, and psychology, this book provides managers and employers with a much-needed wake-up call, while also reminding them of what they can do right now to improve the quality of their workplaces.

The first and only comprehensive examination of the universal but widely misunderstood practice of grudge-holding that will show you how to use grudges to be your happiest, most optimistic, and most forgiving self.

Secretly, we all hold grudges, but most of us probably think we shouldn’t, and many of us deny that we do. To bear a grudge is too negative, right? Shouldn’t we just forgive and move on? Wrong, says self-appointed grudge guru Sophie Hannah, in her groundbreaking and irreverent self-help guide. Yes, it’s essential to think positively if we want to live happy lives, but even more crucial is how we get to the positive. Denying our negative emotions and experiences is likely to lead only to more pain, conflict, and stress.

What if our grudges are good for us? What if we could embrace them, and use them to help ourselves and others, instead of feeling ashamed of our inability to banish negative emotions and memories from our lives? With contributions from expert psychotherapists as well as extracts from her own extensive catalog of grudges, Sophie Hannah investigates the psychological origins of grudges and also offers not-so-obvious insights into how we should acknowledge—and embrace—them in order to improve the quality of our interpersonal relationships and senses of self. Grudges do not have to fill us with hate or make us toxic, bitter, and miserable. If we approach the practice of grudge-holding in an enlightened way, it will do the opposite—we will become more forgiving.

Practical, compassionate, and downright funny, How to Hold a Grudge reveals everything we need to know about the many different forms of grudge, the difference between a grudge and not-a-grudge (not as obvious as it seems), when we should let a grudge go, and how to honor a grudge and distill lessons from it that will turn us into better, happier people—for our own benefit and for the sake of spreading good and limiting harm in the world.

In today’s workplace, managers, leaders, and HR professionals often believe they don’t have the time to help employees navigate conflict. More often than not, however, it takes more time not to address conflict than to constructively intervene. But before you can successfully guide others in managing disagreements, you must be able to manage yourself–your mindset, presence, and behaviors.

Turn Enemies into Allies offers a way of working with clashing employees that is deliberate and systematic–one that draws on the author’s expertise in conflict and communication skill-building and a decades-long practice in mind-body principles from the martial art aikido.

Following the author’s step-by-step guide, you will:

• Acquire the skill and confidence to coach conflicting employees back to a professional, effective working relationship, while simultaneously changing their lives for the better.
• Restore control and peace of mind to the workplace.
• Increase your leadership presence.

This books sets the out 7 principles to create and maintain successful, workable relationships through effective conflict resolution.  It provides you with the tools to resolve or mediate difficult conversations and conflict situations whatever the situation or context and help other people do the same to transform professional and personal relationships permanently. Crucially, it allows you to achieve results without the need to go to court or litigation even when conflict has escalated or is entrenched.

The 7 principles to effective conflict resolution will enable you to understand, discuss and resolve problematic situations whether as an individual or organisation:

1. Acknowledge the Conflict

2. Take Control: building resolution focussed conversations

3. Construct a Resolution with the Conflict Resolution Framework

4. Enable others’ Success

5. Build the Resolution Culture

6. Walk the Walk

7. Engage the safety net: When informal resolution doesn’t work

7 Principles of Conflict Resolution will guide you through the process from beginning to end, with a framework for conversations and tools, techniques and strategies that work. There are also templates, exercises and worksheets that you can use to support conversations.

Conflict in the workplace is a perennial problem for organizations. Whether it’s a disagreement between colleagues, a dispute with management or large-scale industrial action, conflict negatively affects both people and profits as employee morale and productivity fall. Endorsed by the CIPD, Managing Conflict is an essential guide for HR professionals needing to tackle these problems by not only resolving current issues but also preventing future instances of conflict. Going beyond interpersonal conflict, the book also looks at resolving board room disputes, disputes with shareholders, in the supply chain, commercial disputes and customer complaints.

The first part of Managing Conflict covers the causes and costs of conflict, the impact of the psychological contract and the legal framework for managing workplace disputes both in the UK and internationally. The second part of the book provides a blueprint for redefining resolution and building a culture of constructive conflict management, from designing a conflict management strategy and developing a formal resolution process to embedding mediation, engaging stakeholders and training managers in resolution skills. It also includes conflict resolution toolkits for managers, HR teams, employees and unions to help tackle conflict and bullying at work. Packed with best practice case studies from major UK and global organizations, this is an indispensable guide for all HR professionals looking to resolve conflict in the workplace.

We attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day-whether dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with a spouse, or negotiating with a client. From the Harvard Negotiation Project, the organization that brought you Getting to Yes, Difficult Conversations provides a step-by-step approach to having those tough conversations with less stress and more success. you’ll learn how to:

· Decipher the underlying structure of every difficult conversation 
· Start a conversation without defensiveness 
· Listen for the meaning of what is not said 
· Stay balanced in the face of attacks and accusations
· Move from emotion to productive problem solving

The master teacher of positive change through powerful communication, Susan Scott wants you to succeed. To do that, she explains, you must transform everyday conversations at work and at home with effective ways to get your message across—and get what you want. In this guide, which includes a workbook and The Seven Principles of Fierce Conversations, Scott teaches you how to:

• Overcome barriers to meaningful communication
• Expand and enrich relationships with colleagues, friends, and family
• Increase clarity and improve understanding
• Handle strong emotions—on both sides of the table
• Connect with colleagues, customers and family at a deep level

The first edition of Crucial Conversations exploded onto the scene and revolutionized the way millions of people communicate when stakes are high. This new edition gives you the tools to:

• Prepare for high-stakes situations
• Transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue
• Make it safe to talk about almost anything
• Be persuasive, not abrasive

From one of the most trusted and bestselling brands in business training and throughout the world, The 5 Essential People Skills shows how to deliver a message to others with power and clarity, how to build loyalty and inspire creativity by demonstrating assertiveness, and how to be assertive.

Put these five essential skills to work and begin your transformation!

Have you ever walked away from a conversation full of doubts and insecurities? Do you feel as if you’ve lost a little ground after every staff meeting? Most of us are either too passive or too aggressive in our business life, and we end up never getting the support, recognition, or respect we desire.

The business leaders and trainers from Dale Carnegie Training have discovered that applying appropriate assertiveness to all your interactions is the most effective approach to creating a successful career. The 5 Essential People Skills will help you be the most positively commanding, prosperous, and inspired professional you can be. You will learn how to:

· Relate to the seven major personality types
· Live up to your fullest potential while achieving personal success
· Create a cutting-edge business environment that delivers innovation and results
· Use Carnegie’s powerhouse five-part template for articulate communications that grow business
· Resolve any conflict or misunderstanding by applying a handful of proven principles

Once you master these powerful skills, you will be well on your way to a new level of professional and personal achievement.

Nobody likes conflict, but you can’t avoid it. Top performers just like you face problems every day. If you know how to deal with conflict well, you can turn it into your biggest opportunity for success.

The Coward’s Guide to Conflict is your essential conflict handbook, giving you the tools you need to manage conflict and come out on top. Discover:

• Why you must know how to handle conflict
• How to recognize conflict before it happens
• How to bring out the best in difficult people
• How to build strength by overcoming problems
• Secrets to impacting and leading others
• Techniques to guide you past conflict

Top performers face conflict head-on and come out on top. You are just a short read away from mastering this essential skill.

Why do people become extremists? What makes people become so dismissive of opposing views? Why is political and cultural polarization so pervasive in America?

In Going to Extremes, renowned legal scholar and best-selling author Cass R. Sunstein offers startling insights into why and when people gravitate toward extremism. Sunstein marshals a wealth of evidence that shows that when like-minded people gather in groups, they tend to become more extreme in their views than they were before. Thus when liberals group get together to debate climate change, they end up more alarmed about climate change, while conservatives brought together to discuss same-sex unions become more set against same-sex unions. In courtrooms, radio stations, and chatrooms, enclaves of like-minded people are breeding ground for extreme movements. Indeed, Sunstein shows that a good way to create an extremist group, or a cult of any kind, is to separate members from the rest of society, either physically or psychologically. Sunstein’s findings help to explain such diverse phenomena as political outrage on the Internet, unanticipated “blockbusters” in the film and music industry, the success of the disability rights movement, ethnic conflict in Iraq and former Yugoslavia, and Islamic terrorism.

Providing a wealth of real-world examples–sometimes entertaining, sometimes alarming–Sunstein offers a fresh explanation of why partisanship has become so bitter and debate so rancorous in America and abroad.

Proven techniques for resolving workplace conflicts.

After years of seeing clients struggling and their businesses suffering with destructive conflicts, Diane Katz developed The Working Circle, a step-by-step process that helps everyone in business resolve conflict in a non-confrontational, creative, collaborative way.

Win at Work! provides you with a no-nonsense guide based on real-life examples of people at pivotal points in their careers. Filled with practical wisdom, it reveals how you can move around the roadblocks that, if left unattanded, can stop you in your tracks. Win at Work! also helps those of us who are uncomfortable with conflict, giving them tools for solving problems in a nonconfrontational manner. This essential guide

• Offers a proven step-by-step process for conflict resolution
• Deals with complex business questions about independence, moral values, face-saving, goal-setting, and leadership
• Provides easy language for talking through problems and reaching a relatively painless outcome

Putting aside simple band-aid solutions, Win at Work! is your proven resource for the kind of long-term team-building that ultimately makes the difference in business and organizational success.

Real organizational change isn’t brought about by decree, pressure, permission, or even persuasion. Sustained change comes when people are passionately and personally committed to a future that they have helped to shape. If you want to turn your organization’s cynics into owners, give them a voice in the decisions that impact their work. Consensus Through Conversation shows how.

Consensus is a cooperative process in which all of a group’s members develop and agree to actively support a decision. It’s not mere acquiescence—consensus goes several steps beyond, transforming people from resigned instruction-followers to dedicated champions of an idea. Larry Dressler shows you exactly how to prepare for a successful consensus-building process, takes you step-by-step through that process, and offers tips for success and traps to avoid. Throughout, he provides a host of tools and examples that make this an eminently practical and immediately useful guide.

Consensus Through Conversation will give you the tools you need to use consensus effectively in your organization. It is a handy, vital reference that you will turn to again and again in your efforts to tackle high stakes issues, make high quality decisions, and build enthusiasm and commitment to action.

This engaging and eye-opening book presents a bold model for rising above either/or thinking, recasting the debate on everything from sex and politics to business and religion.

With refreshing wit and honesty, business consultant and columnist Lisa McLeod reveals why most of what we’ve been told about conflict resolution and compromise is wrong-and why the answers to even the most complex problems are closer at hand than we might think. A rare combination of personal insight, business wisdom, and humor, The Triangle of Truth is a just-in-time read for anyone who is tired of the arguments, angst, and stalemates and is ready for real solutions to our problems, large and small.

Workplace mediation is becoming an increasingly popular dispute resolution method to settle interpersonal employee conflicts, including harassment and bullying complaints. There is a direct ratio between the quality of relationships across the workplace and long-term effectiveness and success. Mediation addresses complex relationship difficulties head-on so that working relationships can be restored.

Fostering a philosophy of mediation as a culture and a “co-entrepreneurial” business model, Doherty and Guyler consider what mediation is, why it is necessary and how it works, including the main principles of operation and the 6-step structure of a mediation meeting.  They analyze the reasons for conflict and suggest useful everyday communication skills to help defuse anger or aggression.  Real case studies look at specific complaints of bullying, of sexual harassment and of racism, generational conflicts within family businesses and boardroom conflicts between chairmen and CEOs.