Our series of book recommendations to empower talent and fuel brands.
Why Perpetual recommends it
Jeremy Pollack’s Conflict Resolution Playbook is a practical, tool-first guide aimed squarely at managers who need workable techniques for defusing workplace conflict, rather than a deep theoretical treatment of why conflict happens.
Pollack draws on mediation practice to offer specific structures, active listening scripts, reframing techniques, and step-by-step approaches for facilitating a conversation between two people who are each convinced they’re right, all designed to be used the same week they’re learned.
The book is particularly strong on the manager’s role as a facilitator rather than a judge: much of workplace conflict resolution goes wrong when a manager tries to decide who’s right instead of helping both sides actually hear each other.
We recommend this book for managers who want practical scripts rather than theory, because it lowers the barrier to actually stepping into a conflict early, before avoidance lets a small disagreement calcify into a bigger team problem.
- Most managers need practical scripts, not just conflict theory, to intervene confidently
- Acting as a facilitator rather than a judge produces more durable resolutions
- Early intervention is far easier than resolving conflict that’s been left to fester
- Active listening techniques can be learned and applied immediately, without extensive training
The next time you notice tension between two team members, use a simple structure: ask each person separately what outcome they actually want, before bringing them together to talk.
We give this book three and a half out of five stars.
