The books listed below have contributed to our approach to handling disagreement and conflict. We do not generate income from the links provided, which go to reviews or where free books can be downloaded.
Main Sources
These books are the ones that contributed most to our approach. Reading them would expand your understanding and the case studies they contain help relate the ideas to the real world. The first three books are international best-sellers and are readily available new or used.
Difficult Conversations: How to discuss what matters most
- by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen. Provides the underlying framework for what we call the Roadmap for Dialogue and contains a number of illuminating case studies.
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
- by Marshall B. Rosenberg. A highly respected text that focuses on how to use feelings and their related wants and needs to handle disagreement and conflict. The book contains many case studies from the experiences of Rosenberg and others.
The Chimp Paradox
- by Steve Peters. Describes how our minds work, using a number of metaphors to help us understand why we react emotionally and what we can do to make productive conversations more likely.
Handbook for Facilitating Peacemaking Circles
- by Borbala Fellegi & Dora Szego. Available as a pdf as part of the Peacemaking Circles in Europe project.
The Circle Process: A Path for Restorative Dialogue
- by Jean Greenwood. Available as a pdf from the Courageous heARTS website.
Circle Keepers Handbook
- by Kay Pranis. Available as a pdf from the Restorative Practices resources page of the Raising Responsible Adults from Diapers to Diamonds website.
Other Sources
More Time to Think: The power of independent thinking
- by Nancy Kline. The first part of the book describes the factors that make up the environment we need to think productively. It then describes how our thinking can be improved by a thinking partner and how to deal with assumptions when they block progress.
Human Givens
- by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell. A 400-page book that provides a wealth of information about the Human Givens approach and its therapeutic use. Our page on the approach gives more details and links to pages on the Human Givens Institute website.
Metaphors in Mind: Transformation Through Symbolic Modelling
- by James Lawley and Penny Tompkins. Aimed at therapists, the book focuses on using metaphor as a way to communicate with the unconscious parts of our mind. It describes a detailed process to explore these metaphors using clean language.